Positive Youth and Teen Network Calls for New HIV Law

Source: Puntal

A draft amendment to the National AIDS Law in Argentina entered the Chamber of Deputies. One of the drivers of this regulation is Rajap, a federal organization that provides information on infection and support to young people aged 14 to 31 years old.

The Argentine Network of Positive Youth and Adolescents (Rajap) working to make visible a bill that considers "overcoming" in relation to the National AIDS Law . With the slogan "There is no time" they participated last Thursday in an badembly with other organizations of National Front for the health of HIV-positive people ] in the appendix of the deputies of the Nation to insist with treatment of the project by the law of HIV, viral hepatitis and badually transmitted infections which entered in the House on June 7 .

About 900 young people and adolescents are part of this organization which was born in 2010 and has representatives of all the provinces . The Network is made up of young people aged 14 to 31. There is also a network of positive adults in the country .

Each year they hold an annual meeting and, at one time, they work in each regional headquarters to exchange experiences and information about treatments, projects, life experiences, among other topics. The VIII National Meeting will take place on August 18, 19 and 20 in Mendoza

In the city of Río Cuarto there is a only member of Rajap who prefers to preserve their identity. Three years ago, he learned that he was living with HIV. At that moment, he was 20 years old. He felt that the world was collapsing because he did not know the disease, he did not know what he had

"I started to googling to search for information on HIV I made a world in my head There I entered Rajap's page You had to send an email. They responded the same day and then they called me.I was nervous, they explained to me how was the subject.I calmed myself because people were going through the same thing as me and understood me, "says the young riocuartense

" I prefer anonymity because I'm afraid of rejection . I am a homobadual person and there are still prejudices imagine in this other subject which is more taboo. But, until now, I must admit that I only had a bad experience with my father-in-law who did not drink with me or stopped kissing me. when he discovered . Until I sat down and explained it. I was not informed and I did not know that the virus is not spread by sharing a companion, neither by hello nor by plane, "he recalls. It is the only local representative of the federal network. In the province they are around 30.

Another member of the Network is Gonzalo Valverde who lives in the city of Córdoba . In 2013, he was diagnosed. "The Network has helped me a lot." It's a space of conflict .Every process is very individual, very special, but it's awesome to talk to someone else. one who saw it too ", he adds

" All the time there are situations of discrimination . "New studies indicate that the person who lives with the virus and taking medication keeps the level of viral load low . And in some cases it is so low that it is not detected in the studies.This means that the virus does not show up in the studies. </ p> <p> is not transmitted, "he says.

A global project

The project that entered the Chamber of Deputies on June 7 called "Global response to the virus of immunodeficiency human (HIV), viral hepatitis and other badually transmitted infections (STIs) ". This is a proposal with many years of consensus work between organizations and people living with HIV.

One of the introduced changes is " the incorporation of viral hepatitis and badually transmitted infections to all the text of the standard declaring drugs, vaccines, medical procedures and products of public and national interest, since they had not been considered during the adoption of Law 23.798 (National AIDS Law). "[19659005] Regulation prohibits the discrimination of persons infected with HIV, hepatitis or any STI "as an obstacle to the full exercise of rights in the workplace, education, well-being , social security or perform any type of civil, banking, labor, commercial or any type of relationship. "

also reiterated the demand for generating resources to support the treatments and quality health services that accompany people living with HIV . "In our country three in ten diagnoses of HIV are made at an advanced stage of infection when the virus has already weakened the body's defenses.It is a situation which affects the men most : whereas in the women these diagnoses occur in 23% of the cases, among the men this figure represents 32% ", indicates an epidemiological bulletin Ministry of Health of the Nation .