STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF PEOPLE TESTED ON HIV/AIDS IN LEZHA DISTRICT, ALABANIA ON 2015: THE NEED TO CHANGE THE POLICIES IN ORDER TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE TESTED
Abstract
HIV infection and AIDS disease have a strong cultural and economic impact on the whole society. Also, it has a great effect in the emotional state of the tested individuals and people around them. The work with HIV/AIDS started since 2007 with the initiative of the Global Funding establishing Volunteer Confidential Counseling and Testing Centers being installed within Regional Health Directorates in 12 districts of Albania. The centers were founded due to the considerable need to ensure social support to reduce social isolation for these individuals, to raise awareness of the target groups about the importance of being informed, counseling and testing. Of course, the access to this kind of service is associated with stigmatization, especially in small districts, therefore making the anonymity a big issue. Frequently, stigmatization has influenced the way that help is offered in VCCT Center. Social issues of homophobia, racism and sexism usually have been amplified more when it comes to this category. Hence, in this study I aim to give a clear view of the situation in Lezha District regarding the individual who is tested for HIV/AIDS in certain centers, giving a statistical analysis of the distribution according to the gender (F/M), education (no education, elementary, secondary, high, university), employment (employed or not), civic status (married, single), reason for testing (volunteer, recommended, diagnosed with IST, pregnant, HIV-positive partner), transmission (sexually transmitted, intravenous or blood transfusion), psychological symptoms (stress, anxiety, forgetting, fatigue, emotional sensitivity) associating the client when approaching the service. What remains an issue is the factual increase in the number of tests, not only in Lezha district, but also at national level because the purpose of VCCT Center is to increase the response to HIV/AIDS at the national level, to maintain a low prevalence in Albania and to prevent the risk of its transmission in the future. Of course, to increase the number of tests a change in the policy is needed in the way the services are given, to which target groups these services are given, the level of inter-institutional cooperation, which so far is considered low and also confidentiality issues of reporting in case of HIV/positive results. Reporting issues are still a serious problem in the field, different from what is available in literature, since in the field it is offered a clearer view of what is really happening. Therefore, in this study, I aim to give a tangible reality of the way these services are offered and the real issues encountered in the direct work with these target groups.
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References
Albanian Medical Journal, Institute of Public Health, Albania 2013
HIV-AIDS situation in Albania, Overview, Memo Boci, Albania 2006
Rapport sur l’epidemie mondiale de sida, ONUSIDA, Programe Commun Des Nations Unies Sur Le VIH/SIDA, 2008
Law No.9952, date 14.7.2008 , PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF HIV / AIDS, Ministry of Health, Albania 2015
Hiv – Aids Statistics, in Albania, Institute of Public Health, Report 2015
UNICEF “ The prospect for Development of Hiv Prevention Programmes among injecting Drug users “, Kiev 2003
UNAIDS” Report on the global Hiv/Aids epidemic” Geneve, December 2013
WHO “Global Programme on Aids Regional Office for Europe” Copenhagen 1991
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejsss.v0i0.40
Copyright (c) 2018 Arjona Gjoka
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