“Scientific progress does not matter”, the prejudices are the same as in the 1980s and 1990s, deplores the general director of Sidaction Florence Thune. Young people in particular are “afraid” of HIV-positive people.
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The general director of Sidaction Florence Thune calls on the government to “renew prevention and awareness campaigns on what life with HIV is like today”, Friday December 1 on France Inter. On this World AIDS Day, the association hopes that the executive “take matters into your own hands” and equips itself “a strong objective of combating discrimination” that HIV-positive people experience.
The association deplores the persistence of prejudices about the disease in France, particularly among young people. According to an Ifop survey for Sidaction, published this week, “a third of 15-24 year olds (30%) think that you can be infected by kissing an HIV-positive person.” “A quarter of young people think that you can be infected by drinking from the same glass as an HIV-positive person or by sitting on a public toilet seat”adds Florence Thune.
HIV-positive people discriminated against out of fear
The general director of Sidaction notes that these are the same “prejudices [présents déjà] in the 1980s and 1990s, as if ultimately, regardless of scientific progress, HIV continues to scare people. Florence Thune warns of this fear “not much [à l’égard] of HIV than HIV-positive people”. The general director of Sidaction fears that this fear and prejudice will lead to “discrimination against HIV-positive people”.
According to the Ifop survey, a third of French people admit that they would be uncomfortable with the idea of going on vacation with an HIV-positive person and one in four would be uncomfortable if their work colleague was HIV-positive. .
