Madrid
The life of Oliver Marcos, general secretary of CESIDA (State HIV and AIDS Coordinator), changed radically at the age of 25, when he was diagnosed with the disease. “I found out because I fell ill, with very low defenses and they had to hospitalize me,” he recalls in Bar-code. The activist was caught completely by surprise because the sexual practices he assumed were low risk, but he believes that it is “a little like the lottery, that you can buy it only once in your life and you may win.” Years later, the educator reflects on the stigma of the disease and the increase in cases among young people.
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His life changed radically when he was diagnosed with HIV. Marcos says that he was beginning to accept his sexuality as a gay man and for him it was quite a blow because “I was coming out of one closet and somehow HIV put me in another.” “You go through processes of anxiety, depression, social isolation… little by little as you work on your self-esteem you recover your life,” says the activist, who indicates that “the greatest limitations that an HIV diagnosis can pose are more at the level of social”.
Oliver recognizes that the stigma with the disease continues, and that one of the main fears that a person who has suffered from HIV has is “thinking who is going to want to be with us or have sex with us when we have passed the disease.” “It’s quite complicated to talk about it,” he says, although he doesn’t find it a problem.
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Fernando Aiuti, the “love scientist” who changed the perception of HIV with a kiss
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“Singling young people and calling them irresponsible is useless”
The educator criticizes that the sexual education that his generation received when they were young was “based on fear”, something that for him “is not effective.” “There are many studies that show us that public health policies based on fear do not have any type of effect. As a society we have lost many opportunities to have full sexual education,” reflects Marcos, who attributes this to contributing to the fact that today Nowadays, many young people “may have a false perception of the risk in their sexual relations and do not worry about HIV or another type of sexually transmitted infection.”
“We come across reports that show us that new diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections are being concentrated in the young population. We should reflect as a society on whether there is an increase in infections or more are being diagnosed, it is probably an increase in both things,” indicates the educator, who attributes the increase in cases among young people to greater efficiency in identifying them and denounces the stigma that certain sectors of society have against them.
“The greater number of sexual partners, greater access to early diagnosis resources and a total absence of comprehensive sexual education adapted to the needs of young people is the perfect breeding ground for hearing news that STDs are increasing in young people. But no solutions are given to tackle the situation nor do they explain why they occur in young people,” he denounces, while declaring that “singling out young people and calling them irresponsible does nothing to change health habits.”
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AIDS and HIV
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