HIV infection among women has increased for five consecutive years, but awareness of screening is insufficient? Is it unsafe to have sex with a single partner? Doctor: People infected with HIV are more likely to develop cervical cancer
Infections among women have been rising for five consecutive years. Lack of screening awareness may be the main reason
Taiwan has achieved remarkable results in promoting AIDS prevention and treatment, and has seen a decline in confirmed cases for three consecutive years. However, HIV infection among women is still increasing at a rate of 3% every year. As of September 2011, a total of 2,152 women have been infected, accounting for 5.13% of the total number of infections. %. The latest survey released by Taoyuan Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare found that nearly 80% of female cases had never been tested for HIV before diagnosis, showing that society’s awareness of the prevention and treatment of AIDS in women still needs to be further improved.
Currently, HIV and STD screening in Taiwan is mainly based on anonymous screening. Dr. Zheng Jianyu, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Taoyuan Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said that women’s screening awareness and positivity rate are low. Clinically, most ethnic groups who take the initiative to undergo anonymous screening are aware of risky sexual behaviors. Because most women have a single fixed partner, they feel that there is no risk of exposure, and they have no physical symptoms. Therefore, they easily think that they do not need to undergo HIV screening.
Women infected with HIV are more likely to develop cervical cancer due to different symptoms before and after onset
Dr. Zheng Jianyu said that the signs of AIDS infection in women can be divided into pre-onset and post-onset. Most of the diagnosed women over 50 years old had new pneumonia, meningitis, or were found to be infected with HIV due to cervical cancer . Some patients were accidentally diagnosed due to unexplained fever. Doctors explained that HIV and the HPV virus that causes cervical cancer are both sexually transmitted. Women infected with HIV have a higher chance of developing cervical cancer than those who are not infected.
Dr. Zheng Jianyu explained that most of the infected women who have not yet become ill may have no obvious symptoms, and their HIV infection is only detected during marital health check-ups, blood tests or prenatal check-ups for pregnant women. There are also some women who are told that they are infected with HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases only after their male partners have sexually transmitted diseases.
The public put a negative label on a female patient. She was on stable medication but was still refused surgery.
Although the social atmosphere is gradually opening up, women infected with HIV are still easily labeled with negative labels such as chaotic private lives and indiscretions. They are even labeled as sex workers, and they suffer huge prejudice and misunderstandings. A survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Taoyuan Hospital shows that up to 40% of female patients feel troubled in their lives, nearly 20% of them have to seek medical treatment at the physical and mental department, and nearly 30% of them are refused medical treatment or face discrimination due to their infection status.
For example, Dr. Zheng Jianyu once treated a woman who had been taking medicine for a long time and whose virus was no longer detectable and reached “U=U”. She went to the surgery for intervertebral disc problems, but the elderly doctor was unwilling to perform surgery on her and tactfully referred her to Other Physicians. Fortunately, a young surgeon admitted the patient and assessed that her condition was stable after long-term medication, and then performed surgery on her.
Dr. Zheng Jianyu said that although the Taoyuan Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare has admitted and cared for more than 3,000 AIDS patients, some medical staff still have insufficient understanding of AIDS infection and treatment, which shows the public health efforts to promote the correct knowledge of AIDS infection in the entire society. Education still has a lot of room for improvement.
U=U virus is undetectable and non-infectious female patients can still get pregnant and give birth
In the past, women infected with AIDS were thought to give birth to “AIDS babies.” Surveys show that more than 40% of women are unwilling to get pregnant because of this. In fact, AIDS prevention and treatment are advancing rapidly. As long as you take medication steadily until the virus is no longer detectable in the blood, reaching “U=U” (Undetectable = Untransmittable, undetectable virus = non-infectious), you will not be infectious even if you have sex. Infected people can still get pregnant and give birth.
Dr. Zheng Jianyu pointed out that modern drugs for the treatment of AIDS have been very advanced. Patients only need to take the drugs regularly every day. Generally, it can take 3-6 months to treat the virus until the effect of the virus is no longer measurable. Drugs with better effects may take 3 months. That is to say, U=U is reached. Foreign studies have also found that through intervention such as cocktail therapy and AIDS drugs, the difference in life expectancy between infected and uninfected groups is only about 2 years, showing that as long as they actively receive treatment, patients can maintain a good life like normal people.
Dr. Zheng Jianyu reminded that HIV does not choose people or sexual orientation. There are many negative labels on female infected people. This, coupled with the public’s misunderstanding of AIDS infection, is more likely to cause psychological stress to patients and affect their ability to take medication stably. sex. We call on the public to improve their correct understanding of AIDS and understand that patients are not contagious as long as they are treated stably and reach U=U, so that more infected people are willing to face positive results and follow-up stable medical treatment.
