Mônica Bergamo: AIDS deaths fall 44.8% in the state of SP in the last decade

The state of São Paulo registered a decrease of 44.8% in the AIDS mortality rate and 42% in the incidence of cases of the disease in the last ten years.

There were 1,880 fatal victims of the disease last year, against 3,141 in 2010. That year, there were also 8,521 new cases of AIDS, and in 2020, this number reached 5,363 cases. Data are from the state health department.

The cases of HIV infection increased 19.6% in the last ten years, from 5,295 in 2010 to 6,332 in 2020. There was a 40% increase in cases for men (from 3,667 to 5,133), and a fall from 26, 4% for women (from 1,628 to 1,199), according to statistics from the IST/Aids State Program.

The State Secretary of Health, Jean Gorinchteyn, attributes the drop in deaths mainly to access to antiretroviral treatment, available free of charge from the SUS (Unified Health System), and to the São Paulo government’s policies for raising public awareness about the disease.

This Wednesday (1st​) is the World Day to Fight Aids. Although today it is a disease whose control is possible and whose infected people can live healthy lives, AIDS has been responsible for the death of about 36.8 million people since the beginning of the epidemic in 1981, according to UNAIDS (UN AIDS Program, in the English acronym).

On Monday (29), Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) approved the first treatment for HIV that combines two different substances in a single pill. The new drug, called Dovato, is a combination of the substances lamivudine and dolutegravir sodium.

There are already single-pill therapies for HIV, but this is the only single-dose pill to be used at the start of treatment — the so-called first-line.

_{with MOSQUE LEG, VICTORIA AZEVEDO, BIANKA VIEIRA e MANOELLA SMITH}