Health | Nice and the Alpes-Maritimes score points in the fight against AIDS

The number of patients treated for a new infection with the AIDS virus has significantly decreased in one year in the Alpes-Maritimes, a trend attributed in particular to treatments administered in prevention to HIV-negative people, announced Thursday the regional coordination of fight against the disease

"We are very cautious, it is not a decrease in the incidence but it is the sign that diversified prevention strategies are starting to have an effect," said Dr. Pascal Pugliese, an infectious disease specialist at the CHU. Nice and President of Corevih for the east of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.

In all, about 60 new infected patients were treated by September 1st, a decrease of 40%.

As of the same date, nearly 500 HIV-negative people were being followed by PrEP (Pre-exposure Prophylaxis), that is to say, they were receiving anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) and a supply of badual health care taken. in charge of social security, even though they are not infected. These are mostly at-risk individuals from the homobadual community.

According to Dr. Pugliese, "This is an important figure, in continuous increase, with new people every week and we have probably avoided a quarantine of contamination because they are very high risk people".

Tourist destination that has developed a policy of welcoming gay customers, Nice and his department are experiencing a situation comparable to that of San Francisco (USA), Melbourne or Sidney in Australia with more than half of the contaminations (60% according to the Dr. Pugliese) concerning men having bad with other men.

"Many do not use the condom, so we can do the ostrich or accompany them," says the doctor, who also works training biologists and city doctors to develop screening, and promote a course of accelerated care in case of diagnosis.

"We have to take the HIV test out of its negative image and get it back into a standard, clbadic balance sheet, like the sugar level," he says.

On the occasion of World AIDS Day, some 500 quick self-tests will be distributed Saturday in downtown Nice. The city recently joined the global network of cities most committed to AIDS led by the UN, with the aim of pooling resources to end the epidemic by 2030.

Alpes-Maritimes is the department most affected by the epidemic in Paca, region itself the most affected after the Ile-de-France.