HIV/Aids inching to chronic disease

Nursing assistant Genelle Bentham interviews a woman during the outreach exihibition for World Aids Day, Atrium, Piarco International Airport on Friday. PHOTO BY ROGER JACOB.
Nursing assistant Genelle Bentham interviews a woman during the outreach exihibition for World Aids Day, Atrium, Piarco International Airport on Friday. PHOTO BY ROGER JACOB.

HIV/Aids is now being considered a chronic disease much like diabetes and hypertension.

Dr Keven Antoine, programme director of HIV/Aids, Ministry of Health, said HIV/Aids was not a death sentence and may be easier to treat than diabetes. He said many people with the virus could live an almost normal life as long as they adhered to the medication, and did not engage in risky behaviour.

Antoine was overseeing the free HIV/Aids testing event to mark the 30th anniversary World Aids Day and health fair at the Atrium, Piarco International Airport on Friday.

"It is now inching itself into the category of chronic diseases. People with HIV live as long or almost as long as you or me. Of course it is important that they take the medication. The science and the technology now means that the medications have been reduced in terms of the dosages and the frequency of taking the medication. It is one tablet per day, that is what it's down to," he said.

"There are complications that can exacerbate the condition and the main complication is not adhering to the medication. That is very, very important with HIV, that you take the medication every day, same time as per instructions. The other thing is people may develop resistant strains if they indulge or continue to indulge in risky behaviour. You have HIV, you're on treatment, you're fine so you decide you're going to engage in risky behaviour, you contract a resistant strain from someone and you get worse."

Antoine said he did not believe there has been an increase in the number of people with HIV/Aids, noting that as at the end of 2017, there was an estimated 10,700 people with the virus. He said the only way to get a more accurate figure was to test a significant proportion of the population.

He said those infected ranged from ages 15 to 60, with a concentration within 15 and 49, the working age group.

"That says a whole lot for us because these are the people in the productive phases of their life, so that makes it critically important that we get a handle on this problem."

Antoine said while they were seeing more women coming for testing, they were also seeing an increase in men presenting in terms of new cases.

Asked if it was that many men did not practise safe sex, Antoine said not using a condom was a cultural thing, not only in TT, but throughout the world.

"We feel the remainder of this illness largely lies in the male population, that is why we are trying to focus on more men testing. Men generally do not have the same health seeking behaviour that women do and that is something that we need to have an intervention into. You go into any health centre and you would see mostly women.

"At any health outreach event you will see a lot women. Women have that health seeking behaviour. I don't know if it is because they get pregnant, go to antenatal clinic, they have to go with the children whereas with men, they are working and they delay health seeking behaviour until unfortunately it is too late. Men are usually afraid too, despite being male and strong they are usually very timid."

Antoine said it was important to know one's status. He said if a person tested positive, they could get treatment early.

"Don't wait until you become ill. There are many people walking around with HIV and Aids and they do not know, they don't know their status and they are afraid to go and get tested," he said.

"If your status is negative then we want you to know to reduce those risky behaviour before you become positive. It is a personal appeal for you to know your status. All the testing agencies go through great lengths to maintain a high level of confidentiality whether you are positive or negative."

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"HIV/Aids inching to chronic disease"

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