CREMONA – The Sunday appointment is back with the video column dedicated to health «The doctor answers». The protagonist of this episode is the doctor Alessia Zoncada, infectious disease doctor of the Infectious Diseases Unit of the Asst of Cremona.
WORLD DAY AGAINST AIDS. December 1st was World AIDS Day: but who is still at risk of encountering this infection today? «They are all those people who have promiscuous sexual behavior and who do not adopt adequate prevention measures. They are the drug addicts who exchange syringes and use common material to prepare the psychoactive substance to be injected, they are the newborns from HIV positive mothers who do not receive adequate treatment during pregnancy and they are all those people who are victims of procedures in which non-disposable needles that could be contaminated by the virus itself, ”says Dr. Zoncada.
EPIDEMIC OF HUGE SIZE. The Day of December 1st is important because Forty years have now passed since HIV appeared for the first time in the history of medical and scientific literature and “never, ever, would we have imagined a pandemic of this magnitude. Since the discovery of the virus, 79 million people have contracted the infection, of which 37 million have died. Then there are, according to an estimate, about 37 million patients living with HIV and two thirds are on antiretroviral therapy, that is, they are lucky enough to be in treatment, the others unfortunately are not. A big problem, because in this way the transmission of the virus will not stop ».
PREVENTION. Prevention it’s simple, just follow a few rules: «It is mainly young people who get infected. To avoid contagion, you should not exchange the syringes and material used to inject the drug, use only disposable needles for tattoos and piercings. For vertical transmission – that is, from mother to newborn – it would be enough for the woman to be diagnosed promptly during pregnancy or even earlier and both she and the baby at birth were put into treatment. In occasional sexual intercourse it is important to use a condom ”, concludes Dr. Zoncada.
The video section dedicated to health – in collaboration with the Cremona ASST – deals with a specific topic every week with the help of a specialist. Information on the Infectious Diseases Unit on the website (www.asst-cremona.it).
