It will take time to see results of AIDS plan

THE Balearic Government has confirmed that it has a plan to prevent the spread of AIDS but added that it will take time to see the results.
Antoni Pallicer, director general of the Public Health department of the Ministry of Health, confirmed yesterday that the plan to prevent the spread of HIV, includes the distribution of information and early detection of the disease, but stressed that the effects will only be seen in eight years, when the levels of AIDS drop as a result of this action. Pallicer said that the Government created a register of HIV sufferers in 2003, in addition to the already existing register of AIDS. He said that it is necessary to distinguish between cases of AIDS, of which there are around 2'000 and cases of HIV. The director general pointed out that the AIDS register, which records cases of people who were infected up to a decade ago, indicates that 50 percent of those infected were infected by dirty needles and only 20 percent through heterosexual intercourse. Nevertheless, the HIV register, which was started three years ago, indicates that those infected by dirty needles is only 19 percent, while those infected by heterosexual intercourse is 37 percent. “This indicates that the rules of infection have changed and we can't talk of risk groups, but only of risky relationships”.
Yesterday, World Aids Day was celebrated in the Plaza España.