This year was marked by the largest HIV testing awareness campaign and a meeting of the world's top experts on HIV treatment or How the Czech Republic fights HIV
The #workingpositively initiative
During the year, SAP, IBM and the Czech AIDS Aid Society in the Czech Republic launched the #workingpositively initiative(more here). Together they invite Czech employers to join this initiative with a commitment to be visible role models in ending discrimination and supporting employees living with HIV in the workplace. Fear, stigma and basic misinformation continue to be a cause of discrimination and lead to the exclusion of people living with HIV from both the private and work spheres, as well as limiting their employment opportunities.
"Any such initiative that comes from the public itself is of course welcome," says Robert Hejzák, President of the Czech AIDS Aid Society. "The social stigma associated with the infection is often the only factor that worsens the quality of life of a person living with HIV today. For an early diagnosed and treated patient, HIV infection is a chronic disease with which one can live a normal life. People living with HIV today can start a family naturally, they do not have to worry about infecting their sexual partner, they can work, travel, enjoy retirement and live to the same age as the rest of the population," adds Robert Hejzák, who was interviewed on World AIDS Day yesterday(read more here).
Think HIV doesn't affect you?
In November 2021, residents and visitors to Prague could see 60 buses on the streets of the city promoting the testujsevcas.cz campaign, which the Czech AIDS Aid Society is working on with Gilead Sciences. In addition to the buses, the hiv-testovani.cz campaign also ran on LED displays in the centre of Prague. It was the biggest awareness campaign that has been carried out in the last 10 years. The aim of the campaign was to explain to the public that HIV affects everyone and there is no shame in getting tested. In 9 fixed checkpoints and testing ambulances of the Czech AIDS Aid Society it is possible to get tested anonymously and free of charge.
During this week a total of 748 tests were carried out in our fixed checkpoints and ambulances. Of these, 302 for HIV, 19 for hepatitis B, 180 for hepatitis C and 216 for syphilis. This is a 30% increase in tests compared to last year (565 in 2020).
International meeting of the world's top experts on HIV treatment in the Czech Republic
For the fourth time this year, GSK/ViiV Healthcare has prepared a symposium on HIV/AIDS for Czech and international experts. GSK/ViiV Healthcare is one of the companies that invest a great deal of effort, time and money in HIV development. Especially in the treatment of patients who develop very serious multidrug resistance. Significant investments are also made in the development of long-acting drugs.
The symposium was attended by leading international HIV experts Prof. Cahn from Argentina, Prof. Gatell from Spain, Prof. Rockstroh from Germany, and of course their colleagues from the Czech Republic. In the near future you can look forward to a more extensive interview that we have prepared with Prof. Gatell from Spain, who is one of the top experts on HIV/AIDS.
The international meeting took place on 25 November 2021 in Plzeň as part of the 7th International Symposium on World AIDS Day, organised by the Society of Infectious Medicine of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Clinic of Infectious Diseases and Travel Medicine of the University Hospital Plzeň, the State Institute of Health in Prague and the Institute of Health based in Ústí nad Labem. Also this year, world renowned physicians such as Prof. José Gatell, Honorary Professor at the University of Barcelona, sponsor of the symposium, and former President of the EACS (European AIDS Clinical Society), Prof. Jürgen Rockstroh, former President of the EACS, Prof. Pedro Cahn from the Argentinean non-profit organization Fundación Huésped, and others joined the discussion.
"I very much appreciate the work of Czech doctors, who have been among the European leaders in the field of HIV treatment for years. Thanks to their care, Czech patients have a chance to have a similar quality and length of life as healthy people. That is why one of the main topics of this year's meeting was the care of the ageing population of HIV-positive patients. This is a very important topic that doctors, and especially the whole society, must not forget," emphasized Prof. José Gatell, the guarantor of the international symposium.
Among the Czech speakers were doc. Dalibor Sedláček, M.D., CSc., Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Travel Medicine and Head of the HIV Centre at the University Hospital Plzeň, David Jilich, M.D., Head of the HIV Centre at the Clinic of Infectious, Tropical and Parasitic Diseases at the Bulovka Hospital, Milan Zlámal, M.D., Head of the HIV Centre at the Central Military Hospital and Deputy Head for Health Care at the Infectious Diseases Clinic at the University Hospital.
"This year marks 40 years since the first officially diagnosed AIDS cases. In that time, HIV treatment has made tremendous progress, and I am proud that our company is making a significant contribution to the development of HIV treatment worldwide. Although we do not yet have a cure that will definitively cure HIV, most people who have contracted the virus can now manage it with medication and expect to live for a similar length of time to their peers without the disease," says Neil McDonald, CEO of GSK Czech Republic, adding: "I am delighted that GSK has once again been able to offer experts from the Czech Republic the opportunity to meet and discuss with leading international figures to encourage sharing, learning and progress in this field."
Thanks to the collaboration of Czech and international experts, GSK/ViiV Healthcare has succeeded in creating an international platform for regular expert discussion and sharing of topics related to HIV treatment. The symposium has been one of the most positively evaluated events for several years, both by HIV treatment experts from the Czech Republic and foreign experts.
