“The Covid-19 has made HIV invisible and created a new wave of bad information”

INTERVIEWEmmanuel Macron called on Saturday not to let AIDS “regain ground” by calling for mobilization for Sidaction. The charity event takes place until Sunday to highlight the scourge of HIV, which has taken a back seat for a year and the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic. “During the first confinement, screening centers and associations closed. We saw a 50% drop in tests in the first months in the world”, warns Florence Thune, general manager of Sidaction, invited to Europe 1 on Saturday .

In France, she estimates that 24,000 people are HIV positive without knowing it. “This means that they do not have access to the treatment that would allow them to stay in good health, and that they risk transmitting HIV”, explains Florence Thune, who adds: “We know that screening is essential to consider the end of the epidemic. “

“The Covid-19 has made the issue of HIV invisible”

The director of Sidaction expresses “immense concern” about the eclipse of the screening campaign but also that of prevention. “The Covid-19 has made the issue of HIV invisible and created a new wave of bad information. The hours of sex education in schools have not been made.”

In particular, polls show that more young people than ever before believe that HIV can be transmitted by kissing someone with the disease or trying to use a toilet bowl. 25% of young people also believe that today there is a treatment for the disease. “The indicators were already not very good before 2020. We must do everything not to get them worse.”