More late diagnosis Women often underestimate HIV

German Aids-Hilfe warns: women underestimate HIV

07/03/2015

On the occasion of International Women's Day on March 8, the German AIDS Aid warns that many women in this country underestimate HIV. Doctors often do not think of the immune deficiency despite clear symptoms. Late diagnosis makes the treatment much harder.

HIV infection in women is often recognized late
According to the German Aids Help, many women in Germany rarely think about the possibility of HIV infection. As the German Aids help in a message from the news agency dpa announced, put many doctors Doctors despite clear symptoms not often enough an HIV test. As a result, the disease is often recognized late in women, and many of them are therefore already diagnosed with AIDS under the full picture. The infection is far more difficult to treat at this stage than shortly after infection.

Test for HIV mostly only during pregnancy
According to the experts, women often do not get the idea that they have been infected with the HI virus due to unspecific health problems such as fever, fatigue and malaise. Women would normally only be tested for HIV during a pregnancy, criticized Armin Schafberger, medical and health policy officer at Aids Hilfe. He suggests that it is harder for doctors to address the issue in women than, for example, drug addicts and homosexual men belonging to the high-risk groups.

Doctors should be educated
Sylvia Urban from the board of the German Aids-Hilfe emphasized: „Women who may have had HIV risk should be tested. In the case of HIV infection, the test enables timely therapy and thus a long and largely normal life!“ Addressed to physicians came her appeal: „Doctors should educate themselves on the symptoms of HIV and consider that their patients may be infected, even if the women are not part of the traditional population.“

Many do not know about their infection
In the case of new HIV infections in Germany, the group most affected is that of men who have sex with men. This was announced by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) last year. According to him, of the 78,000 HIV-infected people in Germany, it is estimated that around 51,000 men had sex with men. According to estimates by the RKI in Germany, at the end of 2013 about 14,000 people were living with HIV without knowing it. (Ad)

> Image: Paulwip