The Ministry of Health emphasizes the importance of prevention, early diagnosis and treatment.
VITORIA, November 29. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Basque Government’s Health Department and the Basque-Osakidetz Health Service have warned that 50% of HIV cases are detected late.
The Basque Government recalled in its statement that this coming Sunday, December 1st, marks “World AIDS Day” and on the occasion of this date it emphasized the importance of prevention, diagnosis and early treatment to improve the quality of life of people with HIV.
In this sense, he noted that despite the progress made in recent years, 7.5% of cases are still undiagnosed, and of the cases that are diagnosed, more than half are diagnosed late.
For this reason, the Ministry of Health and Osakidetza have reaffirmed their commitment to the early detection, prevention and education programs outlined in their “AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Control Plan.”
Osakidetsa has added a treatment manager for the AIDS and STI Plan to continue to promote an epidemiological and educational approach to these diseases. The doctor from San Sebastian, Oscar Ayerdi Aguirrebengoa, who performs this role, has been working since 2016 as a specialist in the STI/HIV unit in Madrid, which is considered a benchmark at the national level.
NEW CAMPAIGN
This physician’s work has been primarily in public health, with clinical management of HIV/STI/hepatitis, particularly targeting vulnerable populations, all from a public health perspective.
HIV has now become a sexually transmitted infection because the most common route of transmission is sexual contact without a condom. It is for this reason that in December this year the Ministry of Health and Osakidetza will activate the campaign “Do not combine with STIs – Ez egin match STI-ekin”.
The goal is to raise awareness among citizens about the rise in cases of sexually transmitted infections such as chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, and in the case of HIV infections, it should be remembered that they persist and have maintained stable rates in recent years.
In this sense, Osakidetsa recalled that the use of condoms is the main way to avoid the transmission of this virus. In addition, other combination prevention interventions have been included in recent years, namely HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which has proven to be a very effective strategy.
DIAGNOSTICS
Currently, about 1,000 people are being monitored under this prevention program. When it comes to diagnosis, the only way to find out if a person has HIV infection is to take a special test.
Currently, there are different options for carrying out this test: go to the clinic and ask for a test or take a rapid HIV test, which, in addition to NGOs (Biskaisida, Sidalava, Gekhitu), is available in a network of 60 pharmacies. in Euskadi: 9 in Alava, 19 in Gipuzkoa and 32 in Vizcaya.
From its inception in 2009 until September 2024, 33,659 rapid HIV tests were carried out in pharmacies, of which 0.7% (233) gave a positive result. Of these, 13.6% were carried out in Alava, 33.3% in Guipuzcoa and 53.1% in Vizcaya. The majority of users of this type of test are men, about 75%, with an average age of 36.8 years.
In particular, men who have sex with men make up 25% of the total number of users, and half of the identified positive cases are from this group. Hence the importance of making these tests available to this group considered vulnerable.
The Ministry of Health and Osakidetza said providing these tests in pharmacies improves accessibility and helps reduce HIV-related stigma. Regarding treatment, they recalled that a medicine that completely destroys the virus has not yet been found.
Antiretroviral treatments available today block the virus from reproducing and slow the progression of HIV in the body. Treatment usually begins at the time of diagnosis and should continue throughout life. More than 6,000 people are currently undergoing treatment in Euskadi.
The availability and effectiveness of these antiretroviral drugs allows people with HIV to have an undetectable viral load and thus not transmit the virus to others.