2023-11-29 13:13:30
Before World AIDS Day, Public Health France published Tuesday, November 28, the latest figures on the virus in the country, which suggest a positive trend.
Will we one day see HIV disappear from our lives? Forty years after its discovery, this hope is evolving day by day as medical progress and prevention campaigns multiply. The 2022 data from Public Health France (SPF), published Tuesday November 28 on the occasion of World AIDS Day, Friday, show that France seems on the right track: between an increase in the number of screenings and a drop in number of diagnoses, the results are encouraging.
Last year, the number of HIV screenings in France reached a higher level than in 2019, before Covid, with 6.5 million serologies carried out by medical biology laboratories. “The earlier sexually transmitted infections are detected, the earlier the diagnosis and the more appropriate the treatment,” recalls Doctor Camille Semaille, Director General of Public Health France.
These tests led to between 4,200 and 5,700 people discovering their HIV status in 2022. That is, a lower number than in 2019, which was around 6,000and that of 2012, a decade ago, which was 6,400. “In a context of increasing screening volume, [cette tendance] is encouraging regarding the dynamics of the epidemic,” underlines the press release from Public Health France.
However, situations vary depending on the population: among individuals who discovered their HIV status in 2022, more than half (54%) are heterosexual. Even more, “the number of HIV discoveries continues to decrease among MSM [les hommes qui ont des rapports sexuels avec d’autres hommes, ndlr] born in France. They represent 27% of HIV discoveries, it is written in the press release. The decrease observed since 2016 is probably explained by the increasing adoption of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis. [plus connue sous le nom de Prep], preventive treatment, in this population. Between 2012 and 2022, SPF records a decrease between -11% and -21% in the number of HIV discoveries in all populations. This reduction is even more significant among MSM born in France.
Better prevention for better care
Progress, certainly, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. In 2022, nearly 630,000 people died worldwide from HIV-related causes and 1.3 million people contracted it across the planet.
Although there is still no treatment for AIDS, means of prevention against HIV have been developed over the years in France, as the Director General of Public Health France points out: “Many means are available to protect and protect others […] The fight against HIV […] is a public health issue, everyone can act to stop the transmission of these infections.” The condom remains the basic preventive means of protecting yourself. Today, two brands of condoms are fully reimbursed on prescription.
In the event of unprotected sex or a condom breakage, there is a 28-day emergency post-exposure treatment (PET), which greatly reduces the risk of HIV transmission. As for Prep, it is aimed at uninfected people with risky behavior. This treatment also limits the development of HIV as soon as it enters the body. Finally, the TasPfor “Treatment as prevention” in French, it allows the HIV-positive person “who has had an undetectable viral load for six months under effective treatment and who is compliant with their treatment and medical monitoring” not to transmit the virus to their loved one. its partners, according to Sida info service.
Hopes for a vaccine
There are reasons to hope. At the start of the year, the National Agency for Research on Infectious Diseases presented “encouraging but very preliminary results” of a French vaccine against HIV. Although it does not immediately protect against infection, the technology of this vaccine candidate is promising: it allows the body to recognize infectious agents and stimulate the response of the immune system to try to eradicate the virus.
Enough to make the “zero transmission of HIV by 2030” objective set by the United Nations credible. If “even today, every minute, a person dies of AIDS”, this disease does not remain “invincible”, argues António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN. The number of new global HIV infections is at its lowest level since the 1980s. Four decades after the discovery of the virus, the fight continues.
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