HIV/AIDS: Ilha Brava records 48 cases of patients, all “duly identified”

The information was provided to Inforpress today by the local Health delegate, Hélder Pires, highlighting that after a more in-depth investigation carried out by the hospital's multidisciplinary team, they came to the conclusion that there are currently 48 patients with HIV in the municipality.

“In the last information we had, the island had 63 infected people, however some patients who were in the process belonging to Brava, were transferred to the city of Praia, others ended up dying and some emigrated.

According to the doctor, at the moment what they are trying to do is that, by the end of this year, at least 80 percent of these patients are already undergoing treatments and all of them, with their viral loads and CD4 count.

“Viral loads and CD4 are those tests that we use to monitor patients to see if they are progressing well during treatment or not”, he explained.

Meanwhile, this leader informed that there are some patients who are no longer attending the hospital structure to carry out control, that is, proper treatment, but assured that they are patients who have already been identified, however, according to him, the objective is to do the approach work and try to bring them back to consultations.

For the doctor, with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the focus was only on this disease, since, according to him, patients who abandoned treatment were seen in treatment for the last time in 2019 and to bring them back is a little complicated.

“Our first job to bring these patients back is to try to get to know them better and get closer, as they have all already been identified, except one, but we believe that we will soon be able to identify them”, he informed.

In this sense, he said that everyone has already outlined a strategy to approach these patients, to make everyone return to treatment.

Hélder Pires appealed to patients to seek the services of the police station to undergo treatment, reminding them that every patient who has already been diagnosed with HIV must undergo treatment to no longer put the patient's own health status and that of society at risk.

And, in this aspect, he warned, the treatment is not only based on medicines, but also monitoring by the Psychology Service of the Health Department, tests to monitor the progress of the medicines, among other requirements.

“Just carrying out the test is not enough and the only thing that must be done is to press the button that people have to protect themselves, avoid risky behavior, namely, avoiding multiple partners, among others”, he advised.

According to Hélder Pires, the hospital's multidisciplinary team aims to make all its patients with HIV AIDS “undetectable”, that is, to control the virus so that it remains at such a low level in the patient's blood.

“By being undetectable, we cut the transmission chain and from then on we will have less focus of spread on the island”, he concluded.

World AIDS Day is celebrated annually on December 1st, with the aim of raising awareness and supporting those who suffer from this disease and honoring those who died infected.