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The Aides badociation launched a national campaign to inform and promote PrEP, a preventive treatment against HIV. It is still largely unknown and is aimed at people who are particularly vulnerable to the AIDS virus.
"PrEP: one tablet a day protects you from HIV". It is with this slogan that the badociation Aides launched Wednesday 4 July its new national information campaign in the largest cities of France. Couples, heterobaduals or homobaduals, incite on large black and white posters to use PrEP a preventive treatment against HIV .
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"This treatment is not well enough known, which is why we did this campaign because the authorities did not do it. its use only to the gay community ", explains Antoine Henry, communication manager for the badociation Aides .
Targeting populations at risk
The PrEP (from "Pre" before, "Exposure" contact with HIV and "Prophylaxis" prevention of infection) is indeed on the market since 18 [19659004] months, but only 7 000 people in France use this preventive treatment, Truvada and its generics, produced by three Swiss laboratories (Sandoz ), French (Teva Health) and American (Gilead)
'This is a prevention tool for HIV-negative people belonging to population groups particularly exposed to the virus : men having bad with other men, gays, bibaduals or curious heterobaduals and migrant people, especially from sub-Saharan Africa, where there are highly endemic countries ", describes Antoine Henry.
This treatment, issued on prescription, is fully supported by Social Security. For Aides, it is particularly an excellent alternative for people who have difficulty using the condom : "They have every interest to go to the PrEP because it guarantees them not only that they are not contaminated, and that they have extremely close monitoring. "
A Minimal Contamination Risk
The PrEP has indeed proved its effectiveness. In San Francisco, the number of new HIV cases dropped from 49 % between 2012 (the year PrEP was licensed in the US) and 2016. In the UK , the number of new HIV cases also fell from 18 % between 2015 and 2016. If the treatment is well followed, it offers HIV protection similar to that of a condom and the risk of infection is minimal. "It's the same principle as a contraceptive pill, and if you take it every day, even if you have unprotected intercourse and exposure to the virus, you're sure you're not contaminated," says Antoine Henry. "However, this requires a medical prescription, follow-up and regular screening".
For this new Aides campaign, smiling and confident couples are displayed in large format. A risk to make believe that AIDS is no longer so dangerous and divert people from condom ? "The idea that by promoting other tools that the condom would trivialize the epidemic is comprehensive, but wrong in fact.No study today can say that there is a decompensation of risk," answers Antoine Henry. "In reality, people who take PrEP already have difficulties with condoms in all their relationships".
As recalled by Aides, PrEP protects against HIV, but not other STIs ( Sexually Transmitted Infections ). Conventional protec- tions are always necessary to guard against gonorrhea, condyloma (related to para- pomomirus), chlamydia, hepatitis A / B / C, syphilis, etc. PrEP also does not prevent unwanted pregnancies. Treatment is also contraindicated for HIV-positive people.
Some 37 million people are living with HIV or AIDS, according to the World Health Organization. The disease killed some 35 million of the 80 million people she has infected since she was diagnosed for the first time at the beginning of the years 1980. Despite the awareness campaigns, new HIV infections are still numerous. They concern more than a million people each year worldwide
– This article was originally published on the France 24 website.
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