World HIV Response Day: “Let communities lead”
- Written by Lourdes Pichs Rodríguez
- Published in Health
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This year’s celebration of the World HIV Response Day on December 1, is calling for urgent support to Let Communities Lead in the fight to end AIDS.
In this sense, a broad plan of prevention activities is being developed in health units and vulnerable neighborhoods, with the participation of the Cuban network of people living with HIV.
Regarding the anniversary, Dr. Osmany Ricardo Puig, head of the provincial STI/AIDS and hepatitis department, explained that Holguín is among the six provinces in the country with the highest number of cases detected in the entire history of this epidemic.
The Holguín territory is included among the 30 prioritized in Cuba, due to the high prevalence rate in the age group of 15-49 years, 0.38 percent, similar to the national rate and higher than the provincial rate (0.23), since cases with this infection have been reported in all municipalities; However, the largest number of people living with HIV reside in the municipalities of Banes, Mayarí, “Frank País” and Moa.
The Second Degree specialist in Hygiene and Epidemiology highlighted that the consultation of differentiated services for key populations operates in the Mario Gutiérrez polyclinic of Holguín city, which includes the use of pre-exposure and post-exposure preventive therapy to the virus.
He recognized that HIV persists as one of the biggest problems for the global health system. “This infection has become a manageable chronic health problem, which allows people living with the virus to have a long and healthy life due to increasing access to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care at all levels of health services provided, in the case of Cuba.”
Years of accumulated experience and better knowledge of HIV prevention and treatment mean that the world is in a position to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 and this commitment is part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), he concluded.
