The director general of Sidaction pleads for more prevention campaigns, particularly in schools. But Florence Thune also wants to target the elderly. Nearly a quarter of new infections each year are over 50 years old.
“There are still 5,000 discoveries of HIV each year in France” deplores Thursday May 18 on franceinfo Florence Thune, general manager of Sidaction. Of the 5,000 infected each year, “23% are over 50”. 40 years ago, Luc Montagnier and his team at the Institut Pasteur discovered the AIDS virus. Since then, the epidemic has claimed more than 40 million lives.
franceinfo: 40 years later, where are we in research today? We talked about the hope of a vaccine, where is this hope?
Florence Thune: Vaccine trials continue. Moreover, these tests have been underway for a very long time. And it is also thanks to research on HIV that we have also been able to find a vaccine for Covid. Nevertheless, the virus resists us. The HIV virus is extremely complex. This is why today several trials are in progress, but for the most part are only in phase 1. These are phases which make it possible to test an immunity reaction to this virus. But we are still far today, despite everything, from having this vaccine. We are still facing several years of research.
Would you say that today there is still total awareness of the danger that HIV still represents?
Unfortunately not, since there are still 5,000 discoveries of seropositivity each year in France. Whatever the generations, we forget a little too quickly that HIV is still there. And we end up with people who can die of AIDS in France because they didn’t go for screening. However, we know that science has made tremendous progress over the past 40 years, since people who discover their HIV status are put on treatment. They remain healthy and in addition, they no longer transmit the virus. But today, AIDS or HIV still cause fear and people are reluctant to go get tested. Unfortunately, these people see their health deteriorate and sometimes die.
The biggest problem today is above all screening? What still needs to be done for there to be this general awareness ?
We must continue to talk about the means of prevention that exist today. We have of course the condom, but also PrEP, which is this preventive treatment which is an additional tool in the arsenal of prevention. It would also be necessary to carry out regular prevention campaigns. And then also, we talk about it regularly, to apply sex education sessions at school. Because it also means informing the students of the fact that HIV is still there and really, we have all the tools to protect ourselves. Today, taking a screening test is easy. You can go to any laboratory without a prescription, it’s free, you really have to go and do it. And then I pass the message also to older people, since in the 5,000 people who discovered their HIV status last year, there were 23% of people over 50 years old. So we talk a lot about young people, but we also see that these generations, who nevertheless experienced those 80s and 90s, which were terrible, also forget that HIV is still there.
What actions do you still carry out at Sidaction? ?
Every year, we continue to fund scientific research projects that will also allow us, one day, we hope, to reach a state of remission, to ensure that people no longer have treatment take it for a lifetime, but have a once-in-a-lifetime treatment to really control the virus completely. In addition, we continue to finance associations which, in France and abroad, carry out preventive actions in the field and also support HIV-positive people, many of whom are often very isolated. And we also have a new problem, which is the aging of people living with HIV. And here too, that is another issue that is emerging.