"Therapy in Serbia is free, accessible, good and modern, and a person can normally travel, move and have a life like he had before. The difference is that it is important to take these drugs at the same time every day, i.e. not to skip the therapy," clinical psychologist and DPST advisor Jelena Jevtović tells Vreme.
Number of partners, hug, being in the same room, only people using drug intravenously, only men who have sex with men, "it won't happen to me" and others are prejudices that exist about virus HIV.
Precisely POTENT - National Center for Sexual and Reproductive Health has a mission to improve sexual and reproductive health. They offer free and anonymous HIV testing, as well as free psychological support for people living with HIV. They also fight for patients' rights and improving their quality of life.
Clinical psychologist and DPST adviser, Jelena Jevtović, from the National Center for Sexual and Reproductive Health explains to "Vreme" what it looks like when a client comes to their center.
First, an informative conversation is held where they discuss HIV and other sexually transmitted infections - what are the ways of transmission, what are the risky relationships, how can a person protect himself. So, we talk about prevention, and after the conversation, testing is done.
Since it is a quick test, the results are ready in 15 minutes. If the test is negative, then there is a conversation about how often someone should be tested, how to further protect themselves. If, on the other hand, the person is in the window period, which means that the risk still exists and that less than three months have passed, and that the test can also be false negative, it is important to wait for another certain period of time to pass, to repeat the test to make sure the result is really negative.
On the other hand, if the test is reactive or positive, then clients are referred to their counselors who help people with HIV to go through the process as easily as possible. So the counselors go with them to the clinic.
Testing and psychological support of this center is available in Belgrade, Niš and Kragujevac and can be scheduled we can site. Testing that they do in the centers, they also work in the community at different parties, events, movie nights in order to get as close as possible to people and talk about this topic.
Frequently Asked Questions
When a person learns that he has HIV, the most common questions are, says Jevtović, "will I be able to live normally; will I be able to have sexual relations, children; what will my life look like now; am I allowed to tell anyone that I have HIV and will people reject me because of it... A whole series of questions that we help a person go through and face different situations that arise in life".
It indicates that young people are not informed about how to live with HIV today, and that it is different than it used to be, primarily because of the therapy that exists and which allows people to live as they did before they found out they had HIV .
"Therapy in Serbia is free, accessible, good and modern, and a person can normally travel, move and have a life like he had before. The difference is that it is important to take these drugs at the same time every day, that is, not to skip the therapy," emphasizes Jelena Jevtović.
He adds that if the number of copies in the blood is unmeasurable, it is therefore also non-transmissible. It is important, he says, to emphasize that it does not affect the length of life, but early detection is also important, and that is why they appeal that if a person has been exposed to risk, he should be tested, because the sooner it is discovered, the sooner the person will start with therapy and thereby bring HIV under control.
PrEP and PEP
In addition to available therapy for people living with HIV, there is also preventive therapy for people who do not have HIV to remain negative. In addition to other protection, today there is PrEP and PEP therapy.
"PrEP is a preventive therapy that is used before intercourse and also after intercourse, and it only protects against HIV." On the other hand, if the person did not use PrEP or another form of protection, or did, for example, use a condom, but it fell off, broke or had unwanted, forced intercourse during intercourse - therefore, was at a certain risk, there is a 72-hour period when can take PEP therapy and drink it for 28 days and protect a person from HIV," says our guide.
It is important to note, emphasizes Jevtović, that anyone can become infected with HIV and that what happened in practice was that people who had a small number of partners or were in a long-term married relationship still got HIV because "we can never to be sure whether our partner has relations only with us or with someone else".
"Also, it happened that a person who had just entered into sexual relations became infected with HIV." So the youngest person in Serbia who has HIV is only 17 years old. On the other hand, we have older people who discover that they have HIV in their 70s," notes Jevtović.
Both women and men can have HIV. What is important is that, concludes our interlocutor, this topic concerns all of us because only together can we stop the spread of HIV. Test yourself.
The hospital formed a commission for an extraordinary expert check and informed the health inspection. Cases of death during childbirth in Serbia rarely receive a judicial epilogue.
The request for disqualification of the prosecutor delayed the implementation of the order for the arrest of the legal representatives of the "Millennium Team". The case has now been taken over by the First Basic Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, which should continue the proceedings urgently
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Poštanska štedionica takes over the payment of insured deposits to clients of Alta Bank, whose license was revoked by the NBS, and individuals and certain legal entities will be able to withdraw money, up to a limit of EUR 50.000 per depositor.
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A black picture and the breakdown of the rule of law subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
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