Safe sex, female condom and test for all: U. de Chile launches prevention campaign "HIV does not discriminate" – National

At 9:00 am, a team from the University Hospital of Chile (HCUCH) launched the mbadive HIV screening test at Aulario Oriente of the Campus Juan Gómez Millas, kick-off of the initial prevention campaign "HIV does not discriminate", initiative led by the presbytery, the HCUCH and the Vicerrectoría de Extensión y Comunicaciones de Casa Bello

While hundreds of students came to take the test, they received male and female condoms as well as consultations with medical professionals and students from the Faculty of Medicine, Matías Marín, student of the Institute of Communication and Image and founder of the circle of students living with HIV, presented the talk "Living with HIV in Chile", a year after the diagnosis of the virus, as part of a test operation conducted by the U niversity in April 2018 at Central House. 19659004]  

"Here, in Chile, HIV is transmitted mainly among young people.We, university students, are a key population and the most important form of prevention is the use of condoms.I want to make a invitation to always use a condom and to pbad the test.And if the result is positive or reactive, we, from the Circle of students living with HIV, will provide all the support and all the necessary information so that they can start the treatment as soon as possible, "said Matías Marín.

Rector Ennio Vivaldi, third-year student of journalism, launched the new prevention campaign on campus and his platform www.elvihnodiscrimina.cl

"This is a demonstration which interests our students, that we are responsible for it and that we are not indifferent and that we will not regret the complexity of every young man's life of contracting HIV, "said the rector, adding that" that they like it or not, some others we have to accept the reality of young Chileans with regards to their bad lives and, on the basis of these objective data, we must take steps to prevent them from contracting the HIV ". [19659004] In the company of the highest authority of the University of Chile, Dr. Alejandro Afani, director of the HIV HCUCH and academic center of the Faculty of Medicine, presented the initiative which reports on the critical situation of the country in control. of this epidemic.

"Chile is currently the country in Latin America that is posting the highest numbers in terms of the increase in the number of new HIV cases diagnosed.The rise in the virus in Chile It continued from 2010 to 2017, when 5,816 new cases were reported.In 2018, 6,948 new cases were diagnosed and, since 2019, the numbers are even higher than the previous year, so what happens in our country is a crisis, "said the specialist, pointing out that the news cases are concentrated among young people between 15 and 29 years.

The director of the HIV Center pointed out that this situation was due to the lack of a structured badual education at its inception, to the loss of young people's fear of a disease that is currently the subject of treatment and low use of condoms.

Students, Emilia Schneider, Chair of the Interim Executive Board of CHEF, joined the campaign, highlighting "such campaigns that we are taking to the University". of Chile, because the rise of HIV in the country is undoubtedly linked to years of state abandonment, to public policies that have been lacking in this area, and the current position of students is Comprehensive bad education is a right at all levels of education. "

Regarding HIV testing and operations conducted since 2017 at the University of Chile for the free diagnosis of the university community and citizenship, Dr. Carla Bastías, head of HCUCH's immunology laboratory , pointed out that more than 5,000 tests have been done since.

Regarding the results of the samples, he indicates that at the start of these operations in 2017 at the HCUCH, "until 31 December 2018, 4 449 tests were carried out, of which 66 appeared reactive, and 57 were confirmed by the Institute of Public Health, which gave us a prevalence of 1, 1% .If we exclude patients from this group who had previously been confirmed by the ISP, we have a prevalence of 1%, which is a very high rate compared to that described internationally for Chile. "

Finally, the director of the clinical hospital, Graciela Rojas, also present on the Juan Gómez Millas campus, revealed that the "university hospital" plays a very important role in the country's major public health problems ", just as the formation"