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Like every year, December 1 is World AIDS Day. In Italy, new cases have been declining since 2012, but late diagnoses are increasing: up to 60% of people discover that they already have the disease in an advanced stage.
Like every year, it happens on December 1 World aids day, Un’altra pandemic, in addition to Covid-19, which we must never forget. The day is also an opportunity to review the current situation. Analyzing the latest available data, those of 2019, it appears that on average contagion cases are dropping gives HIV, although diagnoses remain high among youth in the 25-29 age group. There is another negative aspect: 6 out of 10 diagnoses occur too late, in an advanced stage of the disease, when it has been positive for a long time. These are some of the numbers published byFaculty of Health, together with the Ministry of Health, in a bulletin published on the occasion of World AIDS Day. On this day the tfree green elephant AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections Uniticontrolaids, 800861061, will be active from 10:00 to 18:00, but the number remains operational all year (and has been for 33 years) from Monday to Friday from 13:00 to 18:00.
The figures of the epidemic in Italy
Since 2012 to date, diagnoses have been progressively decreasing. In particular, from 2012 to 2019 have been reported annually, by May 2020, respectively 4,162, 3,843, 3,831, 3,598, 3,687, 3,579, 3,003 and 2,531 diagnoses of HIV infection. The highest incidence of new cases occurs in the age group between 25 and 29, and then 30 to 39, while the average age of HIV-positive people is around 40 years. In 2019, for the first time the percentage of infections by sex between men reaches the one linked to heterosexual intercourse, which until now was superior. Furthermore, since 2016, diagnoses among foreigners have decreased. The most affected regions are Lombardy me Lazio. In general, diagnoses were and are higher among men: 80% of new cases in 2019 refer to the male gender and in the age groups 25 to 39 years the incidence is four times higher than in women.
AIDS, late diagnosis and stable deaths
Then there are some very negative elements that need to be countered. Since 2017 in Italy there are more and more people who are late for the exam, when the disease is already manifest and in an advanced stage. In fact, two-thirds of men and about half of women find they have it at an advanced stage and generally a third of patients are tested because they have symptoms or AIDS-related illnesses. If in recent years diagnoses have been decreasing, on the contrary deaths are stable about 500 per year. Once again, for patients with AIDS, diagnoses of candidiasis and recurrent pneumonia have decreased, while cases of Kaposi’s sarcoma, wasting syndrome, and pulmonary tuberculosis have increased.
The toll free number
The Uniticontrolaids toll free number 800861061 It is active from Monday to Friday from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and today, December 1 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. There are also social channels to follow the news and at the same time the ISS experts will also respond on the web in the Skype contact unit and to the dedicated email address [email protected] exclusively for deaf people. Specialists say that around 6,700 phone calls were received in 2020, of which almost half of people who state that they have never had an HIV test. Anyone who has any questions can call at any time, remembering that “There is no prevention without information”, as the motto of Uniticontrolaids.it says.
The importance of the test
The health authorities recall that getting tested for HIV regularly It is a good habit for all sexually active people to live their relationships more peacefully. Testing is the only tool to quickly recognize HIV infection, access the care and medical services necessary to keep it under control, and avoid discovering the disease when it is already manifest. Here all the information about when, how and where to take the exam.
The impact of Covid-19 on HIV
Don’t forget that the COVID-19 pandemic can have a negative effect not only on cancer and other chronic diseases, but also onAIDS epidemic, especially in less wealthy countries and with more fragile health systems. That is why this year’s World AIDS Day theme is “Global solidarity, shared responsibility” and the World Health Organization draws everyone’s attention to this problem and the need to solidarity which is very widespread and in fact not local.
Where we are with vaccines
Nowadays there is still no effective vaccine against AIDS and HIV infection, although several trials are underway. The lack of a valid vaccine is not due to a lack of skills or commitment, but to the fact that the hiv virus is very complex – much more, for example, than the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus, compared to which it is very different in structure and characteristics – and it is also complicated to adjust preventive tools of this type that last over time. Faced with various setbacks, steps forward have also been taken and in recent times, in the May 2020, a study conducted by a group from Emory University, published in Natural medicine, highlighted the potential of a new vaccine, still under study and for now tested in non-human primates, that would last longer thanks to its ability to they also stimulate T cells of the immune system.
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