There are 50,000 people diagnosed with HIV in Peru, according to Minsa | Trade | Peru

According to estimates by the Ministry of Health (Minsa) in Peru, some 20,000 people are HIV positive and do not know it. "We estimate that there are 72,000 people living with HIV and we have about 50,000 people in treatment.There is a gap of 20 thousand to which we have to identify ourselves," says Patricia Segura, chief of the HIV -Said Management, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Minsa Hepatitis.

Entity figures reveal that, in the first quarter of this year, 863 new cases of HIV were diagnosed in hospitals in the area.The largest number of patients are in Lima, Callao and Loreto.

2. Patients without SIS

Eduardo's daughter is taking antiretrovirals (drugs who stop the multiplication of the virus) since his birth and will do it for the rest of his life.Now, at 14 years old, he supposes to be positive HIV just like his parents: without fear.When Eduardo was diagnosed with HIV he has work as security officer in Tumbes, and it is there that he met his wife who was also a carrier of HIV . However, in 2007, he was fired and decided to go to Lima with his family to start from scratch. Since then, they have been selling soft drinks, sweets and sweets on the streets.

"The worst thing is that we lost the Essalud insurance and we sought to join the global health insurance (SIS), but they did not qualify us as people with limited resources, "recalls Eduardo. Thanks to the support of the NGO Givar, Minsa granted SIS to all three just a year ago.

In 2017, the Office of the Ombudsman issued a report asking the health sector to catalog patients with HIV as a vulnerable population so that they could access SIS directly; for that they have not only a permanent and free antiretroviral treatment, but also other hospital services for the state of their disease.

Without proper attention, a carrier of the virus may develop acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS, which is the set of clinical manifestations that affect the immune system to cause death.

According to the commissioner of the Estación de Administración Estatal, Carlos Arévalo, the Universal Insurance Act does not qualify patients with HIV as a vulnerable population, since it does not exist. There is no provision of legal status or a supreme decree that provides for it. "It can not be that they have to go through the socio-economic badessment to access the SIS." The right to health is hindered, "he says.

For Patricia Segura, giving SIS direct access to these patients is one of the goals of the sector that is still being realized. The legal field of Minsa badesses the regulation of Legislative Decree 1346 (published in January 2017), which establishes provisions to improve SIS services and in which patients HIV would be qualified as vulnerable population.

"The formal request for this address is that access to SIS patients with HIV is automatic," he says.