WORLD AIDS DAY: Innovative Initiatives in Spain

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Nov 29 2004 (IPS) - Madrid Positivo, a Spanish non-governmental organisation that helps homeless people and others living with HIV/AIDS kick their drug habit, while curbing the spread of AIDS, awarded its annual prizes Monday for outstanding efforts in the fight against the disease.

The awards not only recognised the work of the prize-winners, but the efforts of the NGO itself, which has undertaken a number of successful, innovative initiatives.

One of the main achievements of Madrid Positivo, which was founded in 1997, is a needle exchange programme for intravenous drug users, which has helped curb the spread of HIV, the AIDS virus, among that sector of the population in Spain.

This year’s prize-winners were filmmaker Fernando Trueba, for his film "El milagro de Candeal" (The Miracle of Candeal); María Jesús Utrillas, the director of a homeless shelter; and the Pepsa Programme run by the ministry of equality and social welfare of the government of the southern province of Andalusía, which is headed by socialist Governor Manuel Chaves.

The prizes were awarded ahead of World AIDS Day, which is commemorated Dec. 1.

Accepting the award, Trueba said he is actually a "coward" who backs away from problems, adding that all he did was "show a problem and people who face up to it and help fix it, like Madrid Positivo."

The achievements of Madrid Positivo are "outstanding and concrete," Dr. José Miguel Monzón told IPS. Monzón is better known as "El Gran Wyoming", the host of the popular Spanish TV show "Caiga quien caiga".

Monzón, a medical doctor by profession, said Madrid Positivo pulls drug addicts and homeless people testing positive for HIV out of the vicious circle of their lives by helping them receive treatment.

The organisation has distributed more than two million needles to drug abusers in Madrid, to help prevent the spread of AIDS.

The NGO also hands out methadone, a synthetic opiate, to homeless drug users. Methadone produces similar effects to heroin or morphine, and is used as a legal substitute for heroin to help addicts get through the symptoms of withdrawal while undergoing detoxification, or to relieve some of the problems associated with heroin addiction.

Monzón also praised the NGO’s "work with these groups, in fighting drug abuse with positive measures, transporting those who are ill to treatment centres, and fomenting prevention."

Jorge Gutiérrez Perera, the president of Madrid Positivo, told IPS that in Spain the statistics of people living with HIV/AIDS are not reliable. To illustrate, he pointed out that 60 percent of those who were officially diagnosed in 2003 previously had no idea whatsoever that they tested positive.

"These figures indicate that there are thousands of people who do not know they have been infected, and we mustn’t forget that the HIV-positive person who is unaware of his or her condition is a source of risk of transmission of the disease," he underlined.

The situation is made more complex by the massive influx of undocumented immigrants who do not undergo medical testing when they arrive in the country. Moreover, immigrants without the proper papers do not have access to the health care system, except in the case of a medical emergency.

According to official statistics, sexual transmission of AIDS is on the rise, since this is currently the source of 75 percent of new infections. And 41 percent of those who contract the disease through sexual relations do not use condoms.

One of Madrid Positivo’s main priorities is working with prisoners and in the city’s slums, where HIV-positive intravenous drug users make up between 30 to 40 percent of the population.

The NGO stated on Monday that the fact that these "pockets" of drug use and trafficking are growing and spreading throughout Spain means a review of the country’s drug-related policies and new resources to deal with the situation are necessary.

For years, drug users have been "hidden and abandoned" in poor neighbourhoods of Spain, resulting in thousands of people seriously damaged by years of addiction and life on the streets, who now constitute a "major public health problem," says a statement released by Madrid Positivo.

The group has found that its needle exchange and methadone distribution programmes, as well as its mobile treatment centres, have made an effective contribution to combating the epidemic in this sector of the population.

Gutiérrez Perera believes there is still a great deal that needs to be done in Spain and the rest of Europe.

But the most serious AIDS problem is in the developing countries, and particularly in Africa. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are almost 27 million recorded cases of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, out of a worldwide total of 42 million.

However, only 400,000 Africans have access to anti-retroviral drug therapy, which slows down the development of the disease and extends the life-span of those infected.

Gutiérrez Perera said this situation calls for "a firm commitment from civil society and governments in the developed countries towards the Third World, primarily out of solidarity, but also as a means of eliminating sources of contagion, which always end up crossing borders."

For his part, Juan Andrés Martínez, the spokesman for the Episcopal Conference of the Catholic church – Spain’s principal religion – spoke out against the campaign to promote condom use as a means of preventing the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS.

This kind of advice "misleads young people and trivialises the problem," Martínez said.

As far as the Episcopal Conference is concerned, condom use does not prevent HIV infection, which is why young people should be educated on the real way to avoid the disease: by saying no to sex outside of marriage.