'I feel at risk every moment I am alive'

He knew what the AIDS virus was when he was only six years old. “All I ever heard about in my life was the risks of being gay,” he said when someone asked him why he decided to take the pill to prevent HIV infection. Joseph Candelero (41 years) began treatment in San Francisco, where therapy was approved four years ago. “It was after a stable relationship that lasted five years. When it was over, I felt that I was in a high risk category and that using a condom was not enough.“ He went to the doctor and got a prescription. When he decided to come to Barcelona he found out that preventive treatment here had not yet started but he kept in touch with a friend who sent him the pills. Until two years ago he was part of a clinical trial through BCN Checkpoint which allowed him to continue the treatment and gave him a guarantee of mandatory medical controls every three months. Now, not just for his own individual reasons, he has become an activist in favour of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in Catalonia and the Spanish state. “Now I understand the fear I had. In the gay community, before having a relationship the first question is if you are negative and that affects you. With the pill you can be calm. I am protected and not threatened, “stresses Candelero, who does not understand how the government continues to ignore this reality.

The scientific community has international strategies follow in the same way. Taking into account that the vaccine will still not be a reality in five or ten years time, according to the person responsible for the care of those infected by HIV and AIDS at Clínic Hospital, Josep Maria Gatell, it’s all about increasing prevention and early diagnosis to try to eradicate the pandemic. “We already have the evidence. In London, they have managed to reduce infections by 90% in just two years, “explains Ferran Pujol, director of BCN Checkpoint, a community center that works to detect HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. In fact, November saw the opening of the first European office specialized in the preventive pill. “We have the tools to overcome the epidemic but we are not applying them,” Pujol complains. He criticizes the “inaction of the Ministry of Health for not yet adopting a pill that is authorized in Europe “.

The problem of this preventive medicine is that the drug company which has the patent, Gilead, has placed it at a very high cost. One month of treatment costs 400 euros. There is already a much cheaper generic but this one, as Candeero mentioned , cannot be marketed either in Europe or in America.

Faced with this reality, BCN Checkpoint has decided to take on a lawyer and a new office that concentrates on the advisory pill and they plan to offer a medical follow-up service. “We are not giving up. Every year there are 800 new infections in Catalonia, “says Pujol. Currently, they help provide the pill to 500 participants in clinical trials.