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Figure Decade
Number of Patients with HIV has Grown Over the Last Decade in Costa Rica
Between 1998 and 2008, the number of people receiving treatment for HIV in Costa Rica increased sevenfold. The Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) supplied drugs for HIV and AIDS to 409 people in 1998 and the total of people who have received medical treatment for HIV or AIDS was 2,886 in 2008.
The data was released by the Fund’s Department of Pharmacoepidemiology, taking into account both people with HIV as those who developed the AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) in Costa Rica. Furthermore, during the last decade, the rate of patients with this condition never had a downward trend from one year to another.
In fact, HIV transmission continues to rise. Just during the first half of this year, the Fund has listed 3,160 people who had to take daily medications for the disease. In 2008, the Fund spent about ¢2.2 billion to acquire drugs for patients with HIV and AIDS.
Although the increase in treatment is significant, the Fund estimates that AIDS figures do not reveal the reality of the virus in Costa Rica. ”The data, of course, ignore those who have the virus and still do not know,” said Ricardo Boza, an infectious diseases specialist who coordinates the AIDS Clinic at San Juan de Dios Hospital.
The center is one of six across the country where priority and specialized care is given to patients with HIV/AIDS. In that hospital, the average of new virus infections is 10 per month. As part of the actions prior to World AIDS Day, being commemorated today, the AIDS Clinic at San Juan de Dios provided data showing part of the reality of the virus in Costa Rica.
Boza, the infectious disease specialist, stated that the clinic attends 1,450 people with HIV/AIDS. Of these, 75% (1,088 patients) are men and 25% women.
In the case of the men, half (544) are heterosexual and the rest are homosexual. According to Boza, women attending the clinic should not be thought of “as mostly sex workers as is the common belief in Costa Rica. Patients include many housewives who most likely were infected by their husbands.”
The doctor also had encouraging news for Costa Rica in the midst of the alarming figures. For example, the doctor said that not a single baby was born with HIV after delivery from a mother with HIV/AIDS in the past two years.
Another significant change in relation to the recent past is that “in the 90s, a patient required up to 17 pills to treat the virus, now a patient only requires three,” said Boza. These drugs are zidovudine, lamivudine and efavirenz.
What should be of concern to many is the issue of sexual responsibility. Perhaps the increase in cases is not due to the fact that the population is greater, but because there are willing to go and be tested, said Boza. The question is why they risk having sex without some form of protection?
The issue of sex, whether straight or homosexual, continues to be taboo in most of Costa Rica. This brings about a lack of communication and information and could also be a source of the sevenfold increase in infections during the past ten years. The population has not grown sevenfold. Therefore, the problem should not be blamed on population increase.
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