Critical 'HIV' warning from an expert: The upward trend in Turkey is rising!

Making statements on the occasion of December 1, World HIV/AIDS Day, Prof. Dr. Serap Şimşek Yavuz, President of the Turkish Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (KLİMİK), said that thanks to ongoing campaigns and awareness efforts, the positivity rate has begun to show a downward trend even in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the infection is most common. However, she noted that in the geography including Eastern Europe, Russia, and Turkey, the upward trend in the number of positive cases continues, especially in the post-pandemic period.

A DISEASE THAT CAN EVEN BE TRANSMITTED TO CHILDREN

Emphasizing that awareness and combat campaigns against HIV/AIDS, as well as the budgets allocated to them, were interrupted by the pandemic, Prof. Dr. Yavuz noted that there are nearly 40,000 individuals identified as HIV positive in Turkey. She pointed out that, contrary to societal prejudices, HIV is not an infection specific to certain marginalized groups, but a disease that can even be transmitted to children through mother-to-child transmission.

Drawing attention to the fact that nearly 1,500 children are being followed as HIV positive in Turkey, Prof. Dr. Yavuz said, “December 1 has been observed since 1988 as a day for meetings to draw attention to HIV/AIDS. Since the disease was first defined in 1981, it has caused a very significant number of deaths. In 40 years, approximately 50 million people have lost their lives; as many people have died from HIV/AIDS as in plague epidemics.”

"WE BROUGHT EFFECTIVE MEDICINES BUT..."

Touching upon the serious successes achieved in the fight against HIV in recent years, especially in Africa, Prof. Dr. Yavuz noted that the ongoing upward trend in our country is related to the inadequacy of campaigns and awareness efforts, stating, “We have brought in effective medicines, yes; we can indeed start all our patients on medication immediately within the scope of reimbursement. But fighting an infectious disease requires finding these patients. We need to fight this infection without labeling them. We are lagging behind in taking societal measures and providing education. Resources need to be allocated here, and work needs to be done in the form of national campaigns.”

"IT CAN LEAD TO VERY SEVERE CONDITIONS"

Emphasizing that while 100-200 cases were seen annually in Turkey until the 2000s, this number exceeded thousands starting from the 2010s, and rose to 4,000 per year since 2017, Prof. Dr. Yavuz said, “Although it is currently estimated that the number of cases is around 4,000 annually, it is thought that a total of 40,000 people are living with HIV, 1,500 of whom are children under the age of 18. It is estimated that the actual figures are 3-4 times this amount. If it continues at this rate of increase, it could lead to very severe conditions for our country in 20-30 years.”

EARLY DIAGNOSIS

Emphasizing that HIV infection should not be associated with any specific groups, Prof. Dr. Yavuz continued her words as follows: “There is no such thing as this disease only being seen in this group of people and not in others. This is an infectious disease. It can even be transmitted to children. All authorities accept that there is a rapid increase in Turkey right now. Moreover, this increase is occurring while we have very effective medicines and diagnostic methods at our disposal. We should not accept this. For one thing, the fear of discrimination and labeling is a huge obstacle.”

TARGET: HIDDEN CASES

“One of the biggest barriers to people getting tested is this. HIV infection can remain hidden in the body for years without showing any symptoms. But because it infects the body's immune cells during this time, in later years, they begin to experience serious infections with agents that normally do not cause disease in other people. Because the virus kills immune cells. If you do not carry out studies to encourage testing, you cannot catch these individuals during the periods when the virus remains hidden. When does it emerge that these individuals are positive?

You can only catch them when the person presents for healthcare with the infections I mentioned. When this happens, treatment success becomes more difficult at an advanced stage. However, if we diagnose early and start effective treatment, the survival time of these individuals is no different from that of normal people. In other words, just like a patient with diabetes or high blood pressure, they can continue their life with effective treatment. The other important aspect is the social dimension. During that 8-10 year period when it remains hidden, HIV-positive individuals can transmit the infection to others. Because they don't know it themselves anyway. Therefore, by catching hidden cases, we are actually saving the patient's own life and preventing transmission to other people, thus enabling the control of the infection in society.”