The city of Ponant still stands out in the fight against HIV, with a first on a regional scale. Jean-Luc Roméro-Michel, founder of the association Local elected officials against AIDSawarded Brest the label “City committed against AIDS”, this Friday, May 6, 2022. An acceptance which had been voted on November 26, 2020. “It pays tribute to associations which are committed on a daily basis, without moralism and in the human respect,” said Fragan Valentin-Leméni, Deputy Mayor in charge of Health.
Fight against “serophobia”
In France, 170,000 people are living with the virus. Although medical advances are considerable, prejudices persist. For Fragan Valentin-Leméni, the sida has become “a social disease: serophobia (when an HIV-positive person is discriminated against)”.
A carrier of HIV “may have the same life expectancy, but not the same life as everyone else. We remain stuck on the prejudices of the 80s, ”laments Jean-Luc Roméro-Michel. In particular, he underlines the difficulties that patients have to face in order to take out a loan from the bank, travel to certain countries or build a love and sexual life.
Screen and treat
For the founder of Local elected officials against AIDS, the equation is simple: “The end of AIDS in 2030 is possible if we manage to screen en masse. It can be easily accessed without a prescription. Treatments have also eased in recent years. Among them, PrEP, a preventive tablet which notably makes it possible to reduce the viral load in carriers of the virus, or even to make it undetectable. Currently, 500 patients living with HIV are followed at Brest CHRU.
Actions taken
The City belongs, since 1996, to a national collective of fight against AIDS. “What makes it original is that it has lasted until today”, welcomes the Health Assistant. Brest associations are involved in the field by organizing prevention campaigns for the general public and groups in need, namely “men who have sex with men, exiles, young people”. Brest is also “the first town in Finistère to have two syringe exchangers”, in order to prevent the transmission of HIV via contaminated needles used by drug addicts.
The objective of these actions? “Reduce the risks without being stigmatized and moralized. Brest is a city fighting against the virus and not against people. The label is more than deserved”, concludes Jean-Luc Roméro-Michel.