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In Argentina, 6,500 new cases are diagnosed each year and the official investment in prevention is almost non-existent.
In Argentina, 6,500 new cases are diagnosed each year and the official investment in prevention is almost non-existent. It was an open secret, but yesterday the United Nations confirmed it: UNAIDS director, Michel Sidibé, acknowledged that the goals of the fight against AIDS are under threat. "We turn on the alarm," he said (according to DPA) and said entire regions have suffered setbacks and 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," Miguel Pedrola, the scientific director of the AIDS Health Foundation (AHF) in Latin America and the Caribbean, told LA GACETA. the largest in the world in the fight against HIV / AIDS. And he pointed out that Argentina is one of the countries in the region with the highest number of positive diagnoses. This is not a minor fact, though it is remembered that at least 30% of people living with HIV do not know their HIV status.
"In addition, we have not managed to reduce the 1,500 deaths from HIV each year, which equals one every five hours," added Pedrola. All this is the result of lack of access to early diagnosis. "
We fail
" It's disturbing because we know how to avoid it, which means we fail in prevention, "acknowledged Leandro Cahn, director of Fundación Huésped in a Recent interview with "Clarín" But not only that's why it's worrying.He explained that for years, we know that a person infected with HIV under treatment and with a viral load undetectable (which means a minimal amount of virus in the blood) is very unlikely to transmit the virus. "In a country like Argentina, which has guaranteed antiviral treatment, if different health subsystems detected the virus in time and the contact with the patients was not lost, new cases should not appear, "he said, strengthen prevention and think about new strategies." Most of the tools to download new cases are available "
The objectives, distant
The WHO launches the alert, but Pedrola is not surprised. "It was predictable when we know that countries invest less and less in HIV." He arrived in Argentina: today, the country allocates nearly 90% of the budget of the program to the treatment There is almost no money for prevention, and the draft new HIV law is sleeping in Congress, "he lamented, emphasizing the importance (and the Emergency) tests and prevention.
"Tests have been shown to reach people, you can not expect people to go to hospitals, there are many barriers in the health system, you have to be proactive. that we do in the FAD is to support local NGOs, our allies, "said Mr. Pedrola.In the past three years, they have made more than 110,000 tests among all, under the slogan that they are in public spaces, open and, if possible, multitudinous
"We are looking for people, and the data allow us to conclude Argentina is not 0.3 or 0.4% (figures official) but it reaches 1%, "he said in summary of the national panorama.
Go out to find the model of rapid tests
End the epidemic, as claimed UNAIDS, it is necessary for the population to know its HIV status (whether they live with HIV or not). And if the test is positive, he should quickly access the treatment, looking to have – and maintain – his undetectable viral load. "If you wait for tests, the epidemiological figures will remain low compared to the reality, but the worst thing is that among those who receive the diagnosis, 30% will continue to be late, and we must change," warned Pedrola The test is free, confidential, very simple (it is done with a drop of blood taken from a finger) and voluntary.More information, 381604-8077 (Identidad Civil Association).
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