Madrid, Nov 29 (efesalud.com). It is already 40 years that we have been working and researching against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the trigger for the development of AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), and it is 40 years of continuous improvements in treatments that have made it possible that there are no deaths from this disease, provided that patients comply with the systematic adherence to antiretroviral drugs.
On the occasion of World HIV Day, which is commemorated every December 1, EFEsalud and Viatris Health Foundation have collaborated in the development of a debate and a multimedia report with which we wanted to press the opinion of three patients with HIV/AIDS, a non-governmental association of positive support and four specialists in their health and quality of life.
The debate, moderated by the journalist and director of EFEsalud, Javier Tovar, has counted with the presence in the television studio of the EFE Agency with Dr. Santiago Guillén, specialist in HIV and AIDS; Dr. José Luis Llisterri, family doctor; Dr. Miguel Ángel Calleja, hospital pharmacist; and the nurse expert in HIV/AIDS, María Escobar.
The patients who have collaborated in the multimedia report, conducted by EFEsalud journalist Nerea Díaz-Maroto, have distinguished themselves for their great expressiveness and sincerity, two qualities that are really difficult to find in any person, even more so when we are talking about patients who still suffer from the stigma of society.
For this reason, in EFEsalud we highlight here and now a phrase from each of them:
"HIV treatments have not helped me, they have saved my life", Iván Garrido, HIV patient due to mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy.
"The treatments have given me an exceptional quality of life... and I have been able to have wonderful children, like any other woman", María José Asencio, patient who contracted HIV through syringes during a bad period with drugs.
"Today I can live without fear of AIDS... and of society," Antonio Ruiz, a patient who encountered HIV when love and sex awakened in him an unbridled passion for life.
"HIV is a clinical and health success, but a social failure because of the stigma in patients, which persists without a definitive resolution", Reyes Velayos, a woman who always bets on Positive Support for HIV/AIDS patients.
"Patients may forget to eat or drink, but not their pills", Dr. Santiago Guillén, an expert in infectious diseases at the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital in Madrid.
"Increasing adherence to treatment in any disease is a matter of public health," Dr. José Luis Llisterri, family physician and former president of SEMERGEN.
"The problem of therapeutic adherence is serious and severe, just as it is now with COVID-19," Dr. Miguel Ángel Calleja, hospital pharmacist.
"Adherence to treatment must be built every day; it is an attitude of patients and specialists," nurse María Escobar, HIV/AIDS expert.
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