The Spanish Interdisciplinary AIDS Society (SEISIDA) meets in Bilbao at its XX National Congress on AIDS and STIs with the protagonists of the response to HIV and AIDS. Some of the aspects that have been relegated by the Covid-19 pandemic will be addressed. For example, remember that the life expectancy of people with HIV has been quickly realized thanks to advances in treatment. But the increasing age of people who were infected with HIV at the beginning of this pandemic is challenging health systems around the world. Hence the motto of the SEIAIDS congress: «Chronicity with Quality of Life: C+C».

new treatments

We have been in the Euskalduna Palace with Marta Pastor, Co-president of the Congress and member of Bizkaisida. She assures that the greatest advances in medicine have occurred in the field of HIV, although a vaccine has not yet been discovered. But current treatments allow the procedures to lead a normal life. Your viral load becomes undetectable on tests. And therefore, they cannot transmit it. In addition, there are drugs that can be taken before or after risky sexual behavior that prevent the multiplication of HIV. Pharmacological advances that were unthinkable 40 years ago, when Dr. Luc Montagnier discovered the human retrovirus that causes the disease. Marta Pastor has called for people who suspect they have been infected to get tested as soon as possible and start their treatment. It is the only way to stop the spread of a disease. Every year around 150 new cases are diagnosed in the Basque Country, almost all of them men.

Stigma and discrimination

It is estimated that 12% of the population considers that HIV is related to certain groups and the association HIV-contagion continues to be heard…; the misuse of language is, in itself, stigmatizing. In addition, situations of rejection have been detected in the health field. Prejudice, false beliefs and misinformation have been passed from generation to generation. To break that, says Pastor, information and training of the health professional chain is essential.