Majority of immigrants from Portuguese language countries
Half of all cases of sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) flagged in the Lisbon region last year were in immigrants, according to study of the data. And of those immigrants, 36.2% were from Portuguese language countries*.
This analysis, compiled by public health experts, took into account diseases registered in the National Epidemiological Surveillance System (SINAVE) for cases of notifiable diseases, for an area of 228,000 people living in eight civil parishes covered by the ACES (Health Centres Grouping) for northern Lisbon, currently the Santa Maria Local Health Unit (ULS).
These compulsorily notifiable diseases include STIs, which accounted for 82% of registrations that year, of which data analysis assessed the most significant: gonorrhoea (34%), chlamydia (21%), syphilis (12%) and HIV/AIDS (6%).
Around half of the reported STIs (49.1%) corresponded to Portuguese nationals; the remaining 50.9% to immigrants.
Of the immigrant population, 36.2% were nationals of other Portuguese-language countries.
“Given these figures, it makes sense to us that there should be attention paid to the reality of STIs, that there should be an investment in better understanding this phenomenon, and that there should be targeted responses, particularly to the most vulnerable populations, such as migrants,” Afonso Moreira, a public health doctor and health delegate at the Santa Maria ULS, one of the authors of the analysis, tells Lusa.
Moreira emphasised that the figures are also the result of an increase in the number of STI notifications that doctors have been making and greater sensitivity of the surveillance system itself, in Portugal as in other European countries.
Asked about priority measures, Moreira said that these should take place at the level of primary and secondary prevention, that is, preventing diseases from appearing and their transmission, namely through the use of condoms, and then identifying diagnoses for the best intervention and in good time.
Ana Fortes, a nurse at the Francisco George Public Health Unit who specialises in community health and is a co-author of the data analysis, confirmed this increase in STIs, as verified by the data.
This increase is “very much associated with people not taking responsibility for their sexual behaviour,” she said. “It is considered that, as there is treatment, you don’t need to use a condom to prevent infections.
“In the past, those living with HIV had a diagnosis of death in the short, medium term, and now treatment allows for a perfectly normal life and, because there are no side effects, people have devalued the risk of becoming infected with HIV,” she claims. “By stopping using condoms for HIV, they ended up being more exposed and being infected with STIs.”
Ana Fortes also warned of the consequences of these diseases, such as infertility, reproductive health problems and resistance to antimicrobials.
“People can become infected and not be able to treat themselves, as well as transmitting the infection and even a resistant infection,” she said.
Cármen Cunha of the Lisbon School of Nursing, another co-author of the analysis, told Lusa that “being a migrant is recognised as an increased risk of contracting STIs, along with attitudes related to risk beliefs and behaviours.
“The nurse, especially the public health and community health nurse, as an educator, is presented as an example to provide clarification and correct information and thus act in the prevention of STIs, through literacy, to minimise the pain, suffering and consequences caused by them,” she added, stressing that STIs can also have a strong impact on mental health, particularly due to stigmatisation.
*Portuguese language countries are described as Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé e Príncipe – with less emphasis on countries sharing the language, like East Timor, Equatorial Guinea and Macau.
LUSA
