Local LGBT+ Groups have published a joint statement urging the practice of safe sex and GU Clinic checkups following an outbreak of Syphilis and other STIs from “Group Chemsex Parties.”
ARC – Allied Rainbow Communities, Checkpoint Malta, LGBTI+ Gozo, MGRM – Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement, Preping Malta all signed the statement. The organisations called once again on medical authorities to engage in discussions towards the best possible long-term strategy. “We urge any sexually active person to get tested and practice safer sex,” they wrote.
This statement came after a warning issued by the GU Clinic at Mater Dei over a rise in STIs in Malta among men who reported they attended group sex parties. “Over the last six months, these events have been going on and over these last weeks we’ve seen some really bad cases of STIs at the GU Clinic,” reported Head of the clinic, Dr Valeska Padovese.
HIV patient on life after diagnosis: ‘They don’t know the battle I am going through’
Gabriel’s parents and siblings do not know he is HIV positive. As he lives an ordinary life by keeping his status under wraps, he questions whether Malta is ready to embrace the reality of HIV sufferers
22 December 2020, 7:46am
by Laura Calleja
Gabriel was diagnosed with HIV in early 2015, five years ago, just as he was about to turn 29. “It was a shock at first. But it wasn’t like what you’d usually see in the movies, or what we imagine it would be like – it was more of an ‘oh’ moment. It wasn’t until later that I realised my diagnosis had a subtler impact on me,” he tells MaltaToday.
Malta HIV patients forced to crowdsource medicine
The EU nation has said a delayed British shipment is causing the bottleneck. Rights groups retort that the government s laissez-faire approach is to blame.
The government has said people will get the medicine they need, NGOs aren t so sure
HIV patients in Malta have been forced to crowdsource crucial medicine due to a lack of supplies, with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) collecting pills from those who have stockpiled them in order to redistribute them to people who have run out. Some people living with HIV are reduced to basically scavenge their own medication, according to Checkpoint Malta, an HIV patient support group.
Patients and their consultants are concerned about a rushed switch from the current to new HIV treatment, following a shortage of medicine stocks in Malta in recent days.
Last week, the shortage forced some HIV patients to rely on the kindness of others who could spare some of their own medicine.
Manufacturers have been phasing out the kind of medication that has been provided by the government to HIV patients for years,
Times of Malta has been told.
On Sunday, the Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement was told that last week’s shortage was the result of the “situation created by Brexit and unexpected delays in a London airport”. Stocks of the medicine are expected to arrive this week while enough stock has been secured to treat those who currently have no medication at all, it said.