Orlando Quintero

Orlando Quintero has spent 40 years as a pediatrician at the Chepo Regional Hospital in Panama. He is a co-founder of the Probidsida Foundation and have served as its executive director for 29 years to date. He has been living with HIV for 39 years.   

The most significant work he has done over the last 30 years has been advocacy in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS, strengthening information, awareness, and education among young students through peer education and training facilitators, reaching more than 200,000 young people. He created a movement that resulted in the government covering health care services for those who are HIV+. 

He will highlight areas where his work has made an impact regarding the development of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Panama, thanks to changes in behavior, among the population, and by successive governments. 

Some of these changes include: at the start of the epidemic, the percentage of late diagnoses was 90 percent. Today, that percentage has dropped to 40 percent, indicating that a greater number of people are getting tested early. A greater number of people are receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART), and there has been a significant decrease in deaths—from approximately 700 to 800 per year to an estimated 320 deaths by 2025—due to early diagnosis and timely treatment.   

“We are convinced that behavioral changes are what will enable us to move toward a healthier world and greater social harmony,” he says.