“This is a first since 2010“, explained this Friday July 29 on franceinfo Florence Thune, the general manager of Sidaction. She worries about a “6% drop in international funding“in the fight against the virus for ten years.
franceinfo: Has the Covid-19 pandemic had a devastating effect on the fight against AIDS?
Florence Thune : Yes indeed. UNAIDS confirmed in its latest data published on Thursday that the fight against AIDS has suffered greatly from the health crisis. Before the health crisis, the indicators were already not good on the number of new infections or the number of deaths. Unfortunately, this is confirmed with these latest data for 2021. We had a drop in screenings in 2020 and 2021 and we have not caught up with it. People did not go for testing simply because the testing facilities were closed during the lockdowns or because the communication around the pandemic completely erased HIV prevention campaigns. This has had devastating effects in many countries with, as we can see today, a number of new infections that is barely down compared to 2020. This is really a first since 2010. We still have 1.5 million new infections in 2021 and the number of deaths is stagnating. So it’s really worrying.
Can the war in Ukraine have an impact on the fight against HIV in the world?
Absolutely. We are very worried about what is happening in Ukraine. As we can see, all health structures are affected. For people, their priority is to flee and find shelter and certainly not to go for screening. People who are already on treatment have their treatment interrupted. Conflicts are a real threat in this type of situation. And then, we are also very concerned when we see that, globally, in all the countries of the world like in the United States, we see laws that criminalize more and more people who are already very discriminated against, drug users, homosexuals or sex workers. All these laws prevent people from going towards care, from going towards prevention. We are also very worried because we have had a drop in funding at the international level for several years. UNAIDS notes a 6% drop in funding compared to 2010. There is a strong lack of political commitment.
Does the research still continue to advance?
Fortunately, research continues to progress, although it has been slowed down in 2020 because it has focused so much on Covid-19. There are now preventive treatments which are revolutionary, which make it possible to prevent transmission, but which are insufficiently distributed in the world, even in France. Of course, the condom is always to be used. Regarding a possible vaccine, we have learned to be very careful for 40 years in the fight against HIV. Indeed, the messenger RNA vaccine is one of the avenues since several vaccine trials are underway in France and around the world. A trial has been launched but we remain very cautious because the first results of phase one will not arrive for some time.