Despite the fact that one in three Portuguese know an HIV positive person, half the population is afraid to do tests to diagnose the disease by shame. The data are part of the study "The Portuguese Public Opinion and AIDS - Overcoming the Age of Fear", which reveals that 80 percent of respondents associated the disease to fear, which prevent them from going to the doctor to avoid being faced with possible ill results.
According to the same study, conducted within the World Day of the Fight Against AIDS, which celebrates the Dec. 1, 43 percent of respondents consider that this is the second most serious disease in Portugal, after the cancer (76 per cent), and 24 percent stated that the carriers of HIV / AIDS are among the groups most discriminated against by society.
Still, there is much ignorance in the face of risk behaviors and fear and injustice are the main feelings generated by the disease. About 93 percent of people who participated in the study say that people infected with the virus are discriminated against, and only 37 percent feel that this differential treatment has reduced. The study will also reveal that a large proportion of people do not have a very clear idea of the number of infected, and to their age. Although most respondents (77 percent) involve the risk of unprotected sex (not using condoms), the multiplicity of sexual partners is considered by only 14 per cent.
Regarding the attitude of the various entities in the fight against AIDS, are the areas related to health, research and social solidarity which have a more committed attitude to the respondents. On the side opposite is the rule, the leaders of opinion, the Catholic Church and the Employers, seeing 58 percent of respondents them with suspicion.
Advertising campaigns just remembered
For the respondents the advertising campaigns more effective are those that call for prevention, the use of condoms and the need for an early diagnosis. Those are the people who best recalls. However, the vast majority are indifferent to many of them - only 49 percent recalls with some ease advertising campaigns carried out in recent decades.
The study - prepared by the Institute of Health Sciences (ICS) of the Portuguese Catholic University with support from Tibotec - based on a survey conducted in November from 603 Portuguese, of both sexes, between 18 and 65 years on issues of public health. "It is intended that the findings could make a reasoned contribution to overcoming the fear, creating new attitudes to HIV positive people and the disease," explained Castro Caldas, neurologist and medical director of ICS.
In Portugal, the first case was detected in 1983 in the Curry Cabral Hospital. According to estimates for Canada's Joint United Nations Program for HIV Infection / AIDS, exist in the country around 32 thousand people infected, among individuals in the age group of 15-49 years. It is assumed for this calculation a number of infections not diagnosed, 30 percent, according to the European Union average.
According to the classification adopted by WHO, the epidemic is a Portuguese concentrate. The prevalence in the general population is less than a Portuguese percent, but in at least two vulnerable groups (injecting drug users and prisoners) is more than five percent. For groups of users who in 2004 appealed to the various structures for drug treatment, the percentages of positive for HIV ranged between 12 percent and 28 percent. The report also says that the relative weight of routes of transmission of infection has been modified in Portugal, but the injecting drug users accounted for since the beginning of the epidemic until 1999, the highest proportion of infected.
According to the same study, conducted within the World Day of the Fight Against AIDS, which celebrates the Dec. 1, 43 percent of respondents consider that this is the second most serious disease in Portugal, after the cancer (76 per cent), and 24 percent stated that the carriers of HIV / AIDS are among the groups most discriminated against by society.
Still, there is much ignorance in the face of risk behaviors and fear and injustice are the main feelings generated by the disease. About 93 percent of people who participated in the study say that people infected with the virus are discriminated against, and only 37 percent feel that this differential treatment has reduced. The study will also reveal that a large proportion of people do not have a very clear idea of the number of infected, and to their age. Although most respondents (77 percent) involve the risk of unprotected sex (not using condoms), the multiplicity of sexual partners is considered by only 14 per cent.
Regarding the attitude of the various entities in the fight against AIDS, are the areas related to health, research and social solidarity which have a more committed attitude to the respondents. On the side opposite is the rule, the leaders of opinion, the Catholic Church and the Employers, seeing 58 percent of respondents them with suspicion.
Advertising campaigns just remembered
For the respondents the advertising campaigns more effective are those that call for prevention, the use of condoms and the need for an early diagnosis. Those are the people who best recalls. However, the vast majority are indifferent to many of them - only 49 percent recalls with some ease advertising campaigns carried out in recent decades.
The study - prepared by the Institute of Health Sciences (ICS) of the Portuguese Catholic University with support from Tibotec - based on a survey conducted in November from 603 Portuguese, of both sexes, between 18 and 65 years on issues of public health. "It is intended that the findings could make a reasoned contribution to overcoming the fear, creating new attitudes to HIV positive people and the disease," explained Castro Caldas, neurologist and medical director of ICS.
In Portugal, the first case was detected in 1983 in the Curry Cabral Hospital. According to estimates for Canada's Joint United Nations Program for HIV Infection / AIDS, exist in the country around 32 thousand people infected, among individuals in the age group of 15-49 years. It is assumed for this calculation a number of infections not diagnosed, 30 percent, according to the European Union average.
According to the classification adopted by WHO, the epidemic is a Portuguese concentrate. The prevalence in the general population is less than a Portuguese percent, but in at least two vulnerable groups (injecting drug users and prisoners) is more than five percent. For groups of users who in 2004 appealed to the various structures for drug treatment, the percentages of positive for HIV ranged between 12 percent and 28 percent. The report also says that the relative weight of routes of transmission of infection has been modified in Portugal, but the injecting drug users accounted for since the beginning of the epidemic until 1999, the highest proportion of infected.
No comments:
Post a Comment