The UN has recognized serious setbacks in the fight against HIV

It was an open secret, but yesterday the United Nations confirmed it: the director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidib acknowledged that the goals of the fight against AIDS are threatened. We turned on the alarm light, he said (according to DPA) and badured that entire regions have experienced setbacks and that the number of new HIV infections in 50 countries around the world has increased. In our country there are 6,500 new diagnoses per year, confirm Miguel Pedrola the scientist of Santa Fe for Latin America and the Caribbean from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), considered the most important in world in the fight against HIV / AIDS. And I emphasize that Argentina is one of the countries in the region with the highest number of positive diagnoses. This is not a minor fact if we remember that at least 30% of people living with HIV do not know their HIV status.

In addition, in more than 10 years, we have not succeeded in reducing the 1,500 deaths due to HIV, which is equivalent to one every five hours, "added Pedrola. of access to early diagnosis.

We fail

It is disturbing because we know how to avoid it, which means that we fail in prevention, recognized for its part Leandro Cahn new director of Fundacin Husped in a recent interview with Clarn.But not only is that why it is disturbing. explained that for years it has been known that a person infected with HIV on treatment and with undetectable viral load (which means a minimal amount of virus in the blood) is very unlikely to transmit the virus. as Argentina, which has guaranteed antiviral therapy, if the different sub-s Health systems detected the virus in time and did not lose contact with patients, new cases should not appear, and he emphasized the need to strengthen prevention and reflection on new strategies. Most of the tools to download new cases are available, recognized

The Goals, Far

The WHO Launches Alert, But Pedrola Does not Is not surprised. This was predictable given that countries are investing less and less in HIV. It arrived in Argentina: today, the country allocates nearly 90% of the program budget to treatment. There is almost no money for prevention. And the draft new HIV law is sleeping in Congress, deploring and insisting on the importance (and urgency) of testing and prevention.

It is shown that tests must reach people; that you can not expect people to go to hospitals. Barriers in the health system are numerous. You must be proactive. What we do in the FAD is to support local NGOs, our allies, emphasizes Pedrola. Over the past three years, they have done more than 110,000 tests, under the slogan that they are in public spaces, open and if possible, innumerable.

We are looking for people, and the data allow us to conclude that the prevalence in Argentina is not 0.3 or 0.4% (official figures) but it reaches 1%, says as a summary of national panorama.

Source: La Gaceta