World AIDS Day, which has been commemorated for 35 years every December 1, 2023 focuses on supporting people affected by HIV infection, fighting stigma and raising awareness of this global public health challenge. Giving visibility to the stigma surrounding people affected by HIV and supporting them in the face of the discrimination they continue to face are the focus of this year’s commemoration.
TDB keeps you informed. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
World AIDS Day 2023
Under the slogan “Facing HIV, kisses and more kisses”, this year’s campaign seeks to highlight the discrimination that people living with HIV face on a daily basis. Since the first cases were identified in 1981, significant progress has been made in treatment, prevention and improving the quality of life of those living with the virus. However, today there is still stigmatization of people living with the infection, leading to all kinds of inequalities.
Prevention and early detection programs: one in five people are undiagnosed.
The Balearic Islands address the different aspects related to HIV jointly and in collaboration with other institutions, associations and society in general. These are programs aimed at preventing and addressing HIV from different fronts:
Early diagnosis and treatment: strategies aimed at reducing early transmission of the virus.
Promotion of condom use: with special attention to the young population.
HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis: 312 people are currently being followed up.
Fight against stigma and discrimination against people with HIV.
Comprehensive sex education.
Awareness and prevention are essential in the fight against HIV, as well as early detection of the virus. It is estimated that approximately one in five infected persons is undiagnosed.
HIV is a virus that primarily attacks the body’s defense system, altering and destroying the immune system. After infection, there is usually a period of a few years without symptoms during which the virus continues to multiply and infect other cells. In the Balearic Islands, 51% of people diagnosed with HIV have had a late diagnosis. Hence the importance of early diagnosis.
Information about the infection is a powerful tool in the fight against stigma and discrimination. However, this stigma hinders effective HIV prevention and compromises efforts to control the disease.
Eradicating HIV transmission and improving the quality of life of people living with HIV is a collective responsibility. It requires the commitment and collaboration of society as a whole to achieve this.
A declining rate, above the national average
In epidemiological terms, from 2003 to November 2023, 3,095 cases of HIV infection have been diagnosed in the Balearic Islands. Of these, 83% correspond to Mallorca (2,566), 4.3% (133 cases) to Menorca and 12.8% (396 cases) to Eivissa and Formentera.
Despite the downward trend, with 103 new cases diagnosed in 2022 (in 2021 there were 110), the rate of 8.75 per 100,000 inhabitants is still higher than the national average.
Sexual transmission remains the predominant route (90% of cases), consolidating the low incidence in people who inject drugs.
Late diagnosis continues to be a challenge, representing 57% of cases in women and 49% in men. At the time of diagnosis, their immune status was already very deteriorated.
Sixty-two and a half percent of diagnosed cases are under the age of forty. The age group between 30-39 years is the one with the highest number of cases, both in men and women.
As for the distribution of cumulative cases by transmission category, the first group in number is men who have sex with men (1,403 cases, 45.3 %), followed by heterosexual persons (1,245, 40.2 %) and those who inject drugs (312 cases, 10.1 %).
Among men, men who have sex with men account for 56% of the cumulative cases since 2003, heterosexual men account for 30%, and injecting drug users account for 10%. In women, 84% of diagnosed cases are due to heterosexual sex and 12% are injecting drug users.
Early diagnosis allows rapid access to treatment, which improves the quality of life of infected persons and reduces HIV-related illnesses, mortality and the transmission of infection to others.
For more information, please visit
https://www.caib.es/sites/vihsida/es/portada-33735/
https://www.caib.es/sites/epidemiologia/es/sida_i_nous_diagnostics_de_vih-57263/