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spe
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for Victoria Chamorro is an HIV positive
trans woman who is mapuche an indigenous
ethnicity of
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Chile
for many mapuche in Chile such
ceremonies are commonly used to treat
ailments they can offer a soothing
culturally attuned approach to treatment
even with serious infections like
HIV despite Chile being one of the most
developed countries in Latin America
with a modern and Universal healthc care
system the country has seen a spike in
HIV cases in recent years why healthc
Care Professionals point to stigma and
abysmal sex education Chile is so behind
on sex and it was ranked worst in Latin
America by Planned Parenthood
International and while modern medicine
has curbed the spread of HIV around the
world the amount of HIV diagnoses in
Chile doubled in the past
decade the mapuche are the largest
indigenous in Chile their understanding
of Health clashes with Western
medicine but in the town of Lampa
mapuche and Western medicine are coming
together Ruth anti pichun is a
traditional healer but she also works
directly with modern medical
professionals to stop the spread of HIV
in her
community
Ruth uses spiritual ceremonies and
native plants from her garden to
complement anti- retroviral treatments
for patients like
Victoria is this
gabes this Intercultural approach to HIV
is popping up around the nation's
capital but where it is needed most is
in the mapuche Heartland the southern
region of
arauna this is an area of high tension
where land rights disputes often lead to
clashes between mapuche people and the
Chilean
government this long-standing conflict
has led to deep distrust causing Sam
mapuche to reject the public health care
offered by the
government Claudia Molina Works in Tam's
main hospital she was the first nurse to
focus on HIV in the
region
for there must be people living with HIV
who don't know
it
we met with one of Claudia's patients a
maucha woman who lived for 2 years
without knowing she was HIV positive she
agreed to talk to us on the condition
that she remained
anonymous
for
Fore
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spee
so your partner
was hiding the fact that he had
hivs
indigenous communities are not alone in
their struggle with HIV the dramatic
rise in new cases is also affecting
young people throughout the country as
Chile's conservative Catholic society
makes education on what many consider a
taboo subject very
difficult Elaine Leighton has been
living with the virus since 1997 and
runs a support group that educates
people about
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HIV
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the place with the highest HIV rates in
all of Chile is the port city of ARA
this is a Border Town AC Crossroads for
workers tourists and
travelers HIV rates here double the
national average and teenagers are
nearly four times more likely to get the
virus here than anywhere else in the
country this has prompted local Health
Advocates to start a controversial
campaign called arika has
HIV we visited a local Clinic that is
one of only two places in the entire
country where you can walk in without an
appointment and get a free HIV test
considering the high rates of HIV in
arika the clinic was surprisingly quiet
Liliana Munos is the program
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coordinator
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later that night Liliana took us to a
local Club where she does outreach work
which basically means passing out
condoms she comes here to educate
arika's most at risk young people who
are coming to let loose and break free
from the conservative Society they live
in daytoday for some this means
participating in Live Sex
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Shows Oh
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serious
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but handing out condoms and nightclubs
isn't enough to curb Chile's Rising HIV
rates while the Ministry of Health
estimates that 39,000 Chileans have HIV
Which is less than 1% of the population
and about on par with the US
many experts we spoke to estimate that
nearly half of the people living with
HIV in Chile don't know they have it and
therefore aren't counted in the
government's
projection esano is from the national
program for the prevention of STDs HIV
and
AIDS
for
but stigma isn't the only issue here the
government isn't providing basic
services to stop the spread of the virus
there's no rapid testing there are no
mobile clinics and campaigns to promote
safe sex are ineffective the government
knows this and has even given itself a
four out of 10o grade acknowledging its
failure to effectively respond to HIV so
the Government of Chile gave itself a
four-point grade a failing grade in
addressing HIV be in Chile why is
that
for
foreign
spee
fore
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