November 26, 2024, 1:26 PM
November 26, 2024, 1:26 PM
This December 1st commemorates the World AIDS Day and from the Headquarters they are preparing a health fair focused on prevention of HIV-AIDS, above all, taking into account that Santa Cruz has a incidence of 42%.
“We are concerned about this situation, that is why starting December 1 we are going to have a month for prevention, awareness (…),” he announced Jaime Bilbao, director of Headquarters.
Although it did not give figures for the cases that have been detected throughout this year, or its growth compared to the previous year, Bilbao added that, according to statistics, there is a mhigher incidence of positive cases among young people between 18 and 25 years old.
The central activity, however, will take place this Friday, November 29, at the Green Cross of the La Ramada old market, where rapid HIV tests will be carried outinformation will be provided and the prevention of HIV and AIDS will be promoted, starting at 9:00.
For his part, Alfredo Padilla, head of the HIV AIDS Program at Headquarters, recalled that in 2024 the 40 years of the HIV epidemic in the country, when the p was registeredfirst case in 1984, in the department of Santa Cruz.
He indicated that one of the main achievements of the Headquarters through this program is the deconcentration in the care of people with HIV and their integration into the SUS servicewhich allows access for people with HIV closer to their home.
“We have care in all the department’s first-level centers, so that they can access timely diagnosis, treatment and follow-up,” Padilla explained.
Prevention ambassadors
The queen of Carnival, Ariane Torrico, together with the Pengas 2025 crowning troupe, will be the ‘ambassadors of prevention’ of this disease in the coming months, Bilbao announced.
the queen ratified its commitment to promote HIV-AIDS prevention among the young comparseros. Likewise, he urged the population to put aside the stigmas with people living with HIV.
“As an ambassador of prevention, I remind you that we must leave that stigma and discrimination towards these people, because they are all equal. Let’s put aside all that (the stigma) and take precautions for our future,” he said.
