Health Senator Dilek Kalayci (SPD) had an HIV rapid test done at the opening.
Photo: nd / Ulli Winkler
–
»When I say we want to end AIDS in Berlin, I mean it very seriously. We all mean this very seriously. «On Monday morning, Health Senator Dilek Kalayci (SPD) opens the Checkpoint BLN advisory center with determined words. “Metropolises like Berlin play an important role in an international topic like AIDS,” explains Kalayci. In 2016, Berlin was the only city in Germany to join the “Fast-Track Cities Initiative To End Aids”. In German this means something like: Cities that end AIDS quickly. By 2030, these cities want to ensure that the AIDS epidemic in their territory is over.
To achieve this goal, the formula 95-95-95-0 applies. This means that in ten years 95 percent of those infected with HIV will know about their infection and 95 percent of them should be treated. The therapy should in turn enable 95 percent of them to completely suppress the virus. The virus would ultimately no longer be passed on in this way. Without treatment, HIV leads to AIDS and other serious illnesses. Basically, the number of HIV infections in Berlin is decreasing. There were 320 new infections in 2018. Berlin spends more than five million euros a year on combating AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. 1.3 million euros were made available for the establishment of the checkpoint.
“We want to encourage people to use such facilities for themselves and to be tested for HIV,” says Kalayci. Only those who get tested know about the infection and can go straight to advice and treatment. All this is possible at the checkpoint – Monday to Friday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. In order to show how straightforward a quick test is, the senator can have HIV tested on site. Discrimination and stigmatization of people with HIV must be ended, the senator says. She is planning a large campaign with 150,000 euros.
Kalayci, who persisted in the project, receives a lot of applause from the well over 100 people who met on the third floor of the large corner building at the transition from Hermannstrasse to Hermannplatz. You look down through the large windows at the heart of the area, Hermannplatz. Most of them are happy to see the opening, which many clubs have been waiting for for several years.
When implementing the project, it was possible to get many actors around the table, says Marcel de Groot, managing director of the Berlin gay advice service. “The collaborations, which are otherwise always very difficult, have been successful here.” Among other things, Berlin Aids Aid, the working group of resident doctors in the care of people infected with HIV (dagnä), gay advice and the Auguste-Viktoria-Klinikum have teamed up , supported by smaller clubs such as Fixpunkt or »Hilfe für Jungs«. Marcel de Groot said that he was very happy that the time of small, often “dirty” consulting rooms was over. It has become a bright, consistently friendly place. The design, says Stefan Zschage, makes it easy for many people who come for advice to feel good. Zschage has been working as a consultant in the two previously rented rooms since April, which have now been expanded by converting the entire floor. He praised the close interlinking of various advisory services, which made everyday work much easier. “It looks a little like a designer glasses shop,” laughs the young man, but has nothing clinical or sterile. “Uncomplicated, open and close to the scene,” as it says on the new website, is being fought hard for the end of a fatal illness at Hermannplatz.
– ,
