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Sidaction 2024: 30 years of fight and progress
Sidaction 2024: 30 years of fight and progress
(franceinfo)
Sidaction celebrates its 30th anniversary this weekend. Today, in France, 200,000 people live with HIV and 5,000 learn of their HIV status each year. The fight and research continue to progress.
It only takes a few images taken at the height of the AIDS years to revive the memory of an uncertain love story. One a rocker, the other a punk and a daily life punctuated by repeated hospitalizations. “When I opened my heart to him, he started crying, telling me, ‘no it’s not possible, you and I’m HIV positive’”, remembers Frédéric Navarro. His companion died in 2010, but Frédéric Navarro survived. In 38 years of HIV, he has seen treatments become lighter.
Preconceived ideas about the disease persist
In March 1981, a mysterious illness struck the United States. At the time, it quickly led to death. In 1983, French researchers from the Pasteur Institute discovered the AIDS virus. A first treatment is offered four years later, but it is very cumbersome and expensive. Very quickly, celebrities mobilized and in 1994, Line Renaud was the first to support Sidaction. Two years later, triple therapy appeared, it was the first drug to prove effective and mortality finally fell.
According to Professor Gilles Pialoux, infectious disease specialist and head of department at Tenon hospital (Paris), if screening and treatment occur quickly, patients have a lifespan equivalent to that of an HIV-negative person. According to a recent survey, preconceived ideas about the disease persist, particularly among young people. A quarter of them consider themselves poorly informed, an increase of 22 points in 15 years.
