MADRID, Spain.- In recent months there has been a marked deficiency of contraceptive methods throughout Cuba, recognized the country’s health authorities.
This situation has led to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); as well as unwanted pregnancies and “the figures for official abortions —the highest in the last two years— and unofficial ones, with the risk of sterility that this implies and problems for the reproductive health of women, in general, in a country that it deals with low fertility and the aging of its population,” said Dr. Deglis Luciano, head of the STI Program, quoted by the official media Overcome.
The information also mentions that in the absence of a formal market to purchase contraceptives, people resort to buying and selling groups such as revolico, where they are found at very high prices.
This brings with it several problems, highlights overcome: “As prices increase, the accessibility of the most disadvantaged people is reduced, but it also implies a non-negligible level of risk when consuming, especially in the case of drugs, drugs that are not regulated by the national health system.”
The text points out the urgency of eradicating this problem, but does not mention solutions in the short or long term.
Last week Public Health officials in Santiago de Cuba, warning about the increase in HIV cases in the province, as well as the lack of contraceptive methods to stop infections, appealed to prior HIV prophylaxis (PrEP, for its acronym in English). ) to prevent transmission of the virus.
“PrEP is an additional preventive method for people who do not have HIV, but who have a higher risk of becoming infected due to biological characteristics and the conditions in which they carry out their sexual life, marked by stigma and discrimination,” he told the newspaper. Sierra Maestra Manuel Felipe Moreno Soto, medical provider of health care in Santiago de Cuba.
As explained by the doctor, “it has been shown that by acting on key populations it is possible to stop transmission or at least drastically reduce the incidence of HIV and, consequently, AIDS.”
Specialists in that eastern Cuban province have assured on several occasions that only the population at risk receives condoms free of charge, although in a controlled manner, since there are not enough quantities to sell in pharmacies or health centers.
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