World AIDS Day: Stigma persists despite medical advances

One tablet per day. And life expectancy is similar to people who do not have chronic infection. This is the medical life of people living with HIV. The situation contrasts with the discrimination and stigma that this population still suffers from. According to the State Federation of Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Bisexual and More (FELGTBI+) report, Visibility of People with HIV, only 12% are visible people in all walks of life.

Research shows that they don’t share their diagnosis when they want to, primarily because of fear of rejection, and then because of fear of being treated differently. An area where most people with HIV choose not to talk about it is in action. 75% decided not to tell their colleagues. Add to this that one in four people with HIV takes more than two months to tell anyone, and almost half of those surveyed have not shared their diagnosis with their family or partner. Moreover, 60% were unaware that HIV treatment makes the infection undetectable and therefore undetectable, and 30% thought they would die after receiving a diagnosis.

These data are in line with the words of Oliver Marcos, Secida’s secretary general, who agrees that “the main social problem is stigma.” “Biomedical advances are increasing, but at a social level there is still a very high percentage of people with HIV who do not want to talk about it with anyone around them or believe that their HIV diagnosis is deserved due to various points in their lives. the lives they took or the risky actions they took,” Marcos tells SUR.

The activist also calls for a focus on migrants through human rights. “Most of the people we encounter with HIV are migrants who face many barriers to accessing health care,” says Marcos, pointing to the barriers government policies impose on them, as well as the challenges in prevention and treatment HIV. In this regard, one of the findings of the report “Epidemiological Surveillance of HIV and AIDS in Spain in 2023”, prepared by the Ministry of Health, indicates that people from other countries of origin constitute “a significant proportion of new diagnoses.”

Despite the negative data, Cesida’s executive director notes that through initiatives like Positive Pride, people with HIV are able to talk about the infection publicly and even give interviews to the media to tell their story. “The trend is changing, but not as quickly as we would like,” he clarifies. Links are also important at this stage. Marcos argues that this population is motivated, empowered and encouraged to be visible by seeing others like them. “The vast majority of people will live longer with HIV than without it. There are people who don’t want to stay in the public eye for many years of their lives, and I think that’s respectable too,” he says.

Healthcare area

In Spain, 3196 new cases of HIV were diagnosed in 2023, representing a rate of 6.65 per 100,000 inhabitants, although the rate is expected to be 7.38 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023 when notification of all cases is completed. According to the Ministry of Health, this was done this year. 86.1% were men, with an average age of 36 years. In addition, transmission was most common among men who have sex with men, at 55%; followed by heterosexual people (25.7%) and those found in people who inject drugs (1.7%). 49.8% of new HIV diagnoses were in people from other countries, while 48.7% of new diagnoses were diagnosed late.

As for AIDS, 337 cases were reported in 2023. This corresponds to a rate of 0.83 per 100,000 inhabitants. 80.7% were male and the mean age at diagnosis was 44 years. Of the total number of cases, 30% were among men who had sex with men; 37.1% occurred in heterosexual men and women and 4.2% in people who inject drugs. 28.5% had no information about the mode of transmission. From the start of the epidemic in Spain until 30 June 2024, a total of 90,275 cases of AIDS were reported. The proportion of AIDS cases among people whose country of origin is not Spain has increased gradually since 1998 and reached 45.1% in 2023.

“We still don’t have a preventive vaccine against HIV that can prevent new infections,” Marcos says as a basic health requirement, and also denounces that pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has not yet reached the entire population. at risk. acquisition of infection. “We have a cure, research has tried to find it several times without success,” he announces. Curing HIV will mean that it will no longer be a chronic infection.