{"id":92989,"date":"2025-09-29T17:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T17:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/92989\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T17:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T17:02:08","slug":"hiv-resources-havent-proportionally-scaled-up-alongside-advances-in-treatment-says-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/92989\/","title":{"rendered":"HIV resources &#8216;haven&#8217;t proportionally scaled up&#8217; alongside advances in treatment, says expert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gaps in HIV care, including for Kerry and Cork, must be addressed if the Government is to reach its target of no new transmissions by 2030, a conference has heard.<\/p>\n<p>These two counties share one HIV clinic, which is \u201cstretched\u201d as more people live longer with HIV and need ongoing care, an expert told the  Irish Examiner.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Tara Russell, of the Cork Sexual Health Centre, said <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/arid-41689602.html\"> some 100 people lived with HIV<\/a> in those counties about 20 years ago. Now, there are around 1,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThe resources haven\u2019t been proportionally scaled up, treatment has become better but, in some ways, more complex,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we\u2019d be saying is the clinic is stretched.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">This means a new injectable treatment cannot be given to these patients, she added. Dublin patients can get an injection every two months instead of taking a daily tablet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThat\u2019s not an option if you are living in Cork or Kerry, that\u2019s a real inequity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;There just isn\u2019t the space for them to do that in Cork. It\u2019s a physical reality&#8221; as injections are given in the clinics, Ms Russell said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">She called for funding to allow Cork University Hospital to expand the clinic, saying the hospital is \u201cvery aware\u201d of the challenges. More community supports for Kerry are also needed, she added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">PrEP services<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">She said: \u201cThere is a need for improved physical infrastructure for the Cork clinic, and then there\u2019s a need for more resources.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Similar challenges face patients in Galway and Limerick, she added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">More funding is also needed for HIV PrEP services. This medicine is taken before and after having sex to prevent  <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/munster\/arid-41676416.html\">HIV transmission.<\/a>\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThere have been efforts to improve access to PrEP, but there are still very long waiting lists in Cork,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cAnd you still need to come to the Cork clinic even if you\u2019re living in Kerry to get those prescriptions. It\u2019s the only clinic for prevention as well as treatment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">These issues could be addressed in a national action plan, with such a plan called for at the conference by HIV Ireland. Executive director Stephen O\u2019Hare said the knowledge to end new transmissions already exists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWhat we need now is political will and leadership,\u201d he urged.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ireland signed up to the 2030 target of no new HIV transmissions at the UN General Assembly on HIV in 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">An action plan needs \u201cspecific targets and oversight\u201d, Mr O&#8217;Hare said, adding this is \u201cthe only way Ireland can meet its UNAids commitment to end new transmissions by 2030&#8243;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gaps in HIV care, including for Kerry and Cork, must be addressed if the Government is to reach&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[781,18,135,19,17,23647,12000],"class_list":{"0":"post-92989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-cork-news","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-mens-health","14":"tag-womens-health"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}