The increase in HIV cases among men who have sex with men is not a surprise, says the association Abraço

The Abraço Association said today that the increase in the number of HIV cases among men who have sex with men is not a surprise, saying it was necessary to find new preventive methods to control disease.

According to the report of the National Institute of Health Ricardo Jorge (INSA) for the 2017 report "HIV infection and AIDS", the number of cases of sex between men has increased by 29%. in numbers greater than that of heterosexual men.

In statements to the Lusa agency, the vice president of Abraço, Cristina Sousa, said that these figures are not "a surprise", adding that "the investment made in recent years in this population still needs to be analyzed further ".

Therefore, he argued, it is necessary to intervene in this specific group, a work already done by Abraço and the Directorate General of Health.

"There has been an increasing number of HIV infections in this population, and they have intervened with them through screening, but also with the introduction of PREP. [profilaxia pré-exposição do VIH] which will be considered more as a preventive method to try to control the disease in this population, "he said.

Cristina Sousa said that this population had always "heard a lot" about AIDS because it is a disease that, since its inception, is associated with the homosexual population.

For this reason, he considers it more easily as a chronic disease and, "despite all his fears of contracting the disease," he realized that there were other ways to prevent it.

PREP has helped to ensure that there are no new cases of infection in this population that "rejects a lot of condoms", resulting in increased risk.

For Cristina Sousa, this drug was an important step in the fight against the disease and the figures from the INSA prove it. "We can not escape this reality and we must find other preventive methods to be able to control and fill the current situation".

He warned, however, that men who have sex with men are no different from the "rest of the population who do not use condoms", considering that the main concern concerns the general population.

"The heterosexual continues to consider that it is an infection of specific groups, which does not happen to him, and these data from INSA can again be understood by a layman, but that's not true. "

In Portugal, "we still do not find late diagnoses". New cases in the 25/40 age group are "recent infections in the population of men who have sex with men who request testing as soon as they know they are at risk."

"What continues to fail in Portugal, is to detect those who do not know that they are infected" and, "in my opinion, they belong to the general population, to the group of heterosexuals who do not know their serological status for five or ten years "and still do not protect and infect.

The INSA report indicates that more than 1,000 new cases of HIV infection appeared in Portugal last year, with the 25 to 29 age group having the highest rate of new infections. diagnostics.

Last year, 261 HIV-positive people were killed, including 134 in the AIDS stage, the most advanced phase of the infection. The median age at death was 52 years old.