During the visit to the Ministry of Health of the Executive Director of UNAIDS Winnie ByanyimaSecretary of State Javier Padilla presented the report this Wednesday. “Perspectives on HIV and sexual health in Spain”. The event was also attended by Dr Jaime García Iglesias, lead author of the report and academic at the University of Edinburgh.
The document shows that Spain has made significant progress in the fight against HIV in recent years, achieving reduce the number of new diagnoses and achieve the 90-90-90 targets by 2020 and move towards achieving the 95-95-95 targets by 2025. However, the country’s sexual health situation poses serious challenges. For example, there has been an alarming increase in other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), in addition to persistent inequalities in access to healthcare for vulnerable groups such as GBMSM migrant men, transgender people, and people aging with HIV that they face. legal and cultural problems. and barriers to accessing the healthcare system.
At the political and public level, there is an increasing politicization of sexual health and a lack of interest in HIV on the political agenda, weakening institutional responses.
Sexuality in Spain, as highlighted in the study, is in the process of transformation, marked “Pursuit of pleasure and reduction of fear of HIV”based on PrEP and dating apps. However, this transformation also brings with it new challenges such as chemsex and loneliness, especially among GBHSM men.
Regarding the healthcare system and the biomedical approach that predominates within it, Dr. Garcia Iglesias believes it is effective in improving survival of people with HIV, but does not address the emotional, psychological and social aspects of sexual health. Care is fragmented and uncoordinated, and health staff are not adequately trained to integrate all these aspects.
A sociocultural crisis has been identified that underlies many sexual health issues, including a lack of space for dialogue and the need for comprehensive sexuality education focused on pleasure or consent.
At the political and social level there is an increase politicization of sexual health and the lack of interest in HIV on the political agenda, which has weakened the institutional response. Community-based organizations, despite their critical role in caring for people with HIV, are overburdened and under-resourced.
Finally, it identifies the sociocultural crisis that underlies many sexual health problems, including lack of space for dialogue and the need for comprehensive sexuality education that focuses on pleasure, consent and a positive outlook on sexuality.
Likewise, the report makes a number of recommendations in various areas:researchdelve into the reasons for the increase in STIs and chemsex, as well as the specific needs of vulnerable groups; V access to healthimprove migrants’ access to health care and PrEP, and develop interventions to address the needs of people aging with HIV; V comprehensive carepromote a holistic approach to sexual health, including emotional, psychological and social aspects, and improve the training of health personnel; in this community strengtheningincrease funding for community organizations, strengthen their participation in policy development and improve coordination between the third sector and government agencies; V sex educationdevelop comprehensive sexuality education that includes pleasure, consent and a positive view of sexuality; and in withinterdisciplinary collaborationpromote collaboration between different disciplines, including health, social, cultural and political spheres, to more effectively address sexual health issues.