Nearly 2,300 people are infected with HIV each year in the Dominican Republic, according to UNAIDS

Santo Domingo . – The Joint United Nations Program (UNAIDS) reported that in the Dominican Republic, there were 67,190,000 people living with HIV, of whom 52% had antiretroviral drugs and about 2,300 people contracted the virus each year in the country.

Bethania Betances, country director of UNAIDS, said that 36.9 million people worldwide are living with HIV and that 58% of them already have access to medicines (ARVs) , however, 1.8 million are infected each year,

Betances made these remarks during the presentation of the Joint United Nations HIV Team's HIV 2018-2019 Plan, coordinated by the United Nations. UNAIDS, with the aim of supporting the national response to HIV as a follow-up to international commitments against AIDS, to achieve scaling up treatment for all people living with HIV.

He pointed out that with ARVs, AIDS has gone from a deadly problem to a problem. chronic condition. Previously, the average life span of a person living with HIV was 8 years, but now that life expectancy, with timely treatment and controls, is almost equal to the average life from a person without a virus. That is, we are talking about an effective response and a manageable disease.

I stress that AIDS is a multifactorial problem and that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) allow for a much more comprehensive approach, hence the strategic objectives. This guide aims to intensify combined prevention actions for more exposed and prioritized populations. such as bad workers, Haitian migrants, homobaduals, men who have bad with men, adolescents and young people.

Also, reduce new HIV infections, eliminate new infections in infants and maintain the health and well-being of their mothers, increase the access of HIV-positive children and adults to the tests and that people diagnosed receive immediate quality treatment; eliminate punitive laws, policies, practices, stigma and discrimination that block effective responses, end badual, badual and couple violence to mitigate the risk and impact of HIV, intensify actions to that the response is fully funded and implemented effectively on the basis of reliable strategic information.