translated from Spanish: Minsal National HIV Campaign confirmed only 61 new cases

On January 9, the Minister of Health, Emilio Santelices, launched the campaign “Rapid HIV Test Summer 2019”, which was developed between January and March, and which aimed to deliver 60 thousand rapid screening devices. According to a report by the Ministry’s Department of HIV/AIDS/STI Prevention and Control, the joint work between the seremis and health services in each region allowed the installation of “stands on beaches, recreation centers, public roads, malls, universities, costumbristas fairs, festivals”, among other places. Thus, the first data is that only a total of 35,039 tests were applied, resulting in 34,961 (99.78%) “non-reactive,” that is, negative. Meanwhile, 78 cases (0.22%) were described as “reactive.” “Of the total reactive visual test samples (78) 78% (61 cases) were confirmed for HIV/AIDS by the Institute of Public Health. 18% were ruled out for HIV/AIDS (14 cases) and 4% (three cases) refused to take a sample to be sent to the Institute of Public Health,” the report reports. In addition, 59.06% of the rapid tests performed were performed on women, 40.91% on men and 0.03% on trans people. In addition, of the universe analyzed, 46.3% were people between the ages of 20 and 29. In this regard, Dr. Alejandro Afani, an immune logistand and director of the HIV Center of the Clinical Hospital of the University of Chile, the government’s initiative “is a breakthrough, but it certainly seems to me that more effort is needed to perform many more tests. In Ecuador, for example, 1.5 million rapid tests were conducted last year. We’re talking about other figures,” he told The Third.

Original source in Spanish