2023-12-01 10:54:50
This December 1st is World AIDS Day. In Guinea, 130,000 people are infected with HIV. Although patient care has improved, the needs remain immense and the authorities are still too dependent on international aid. For twenty years, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has been a key player in the fight against disease in this country.
Published on: 01/12/2023 – 11:54
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With our correspondent in Conakry, Matthias Raynal
At 44, Aboubacar is a “patient-expert” for Médecins sans frontières (MSF). “ My role is to help, to demystify HIVhe explains. Wherever there is stigma, I bear witness openly.”
Aboubacar has been HIV positive since 2008. At first, he had difficulty accepting his illness: “ I was disgusted with life. I even attempted suicide two or three times because the illness had made me too tired. »
« Undetectable viral load »
But today, his treatment is working well. He has a wife, a daughter, a normal life: “ I have an undetectable viral load. Undetectable viral load and there is zero transmission. Today, I am even healthier than you! (Laughs) Because I can eat three guys’ plate. I eat a lot, I live positively. »
The support of like has continued to improve Guinea. Doctor Hippolyte Mboma Kamosi explains: “ In twenty years, a lot has been accomplished. In 2004, MSF implemented free, quality care. »
« Handover with the government »
Doctor Mboma Kamosi is the field coordinator of MSF’s HIV project in Conakry: “ MSF is an emergency issue, this means that HIV today is no longer an emergency disease. Little by little we have to get out. But to get out, we have to make the handover with the government. We have to be sure that everything we have done will be taken into account.”
MSF currently cares for more than 17,000 patients living with HIV in Guinea.
Read alsoPriority health – The challenges of the fight against HIV-AIDS in Guinea
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