This is an amount close to that collected last year. The Sidaction association received just over 3.9 million euros in pledges for the fight against AIDS during its traditional annual fundraising weekend.
The association had already collected 4 million euros last year, a little less than the record of 4.5 million reached in 2019 and almost repeated in 2021. The collection, launched on Friday with the support of 35 media partners, remains open until April 6 by telephone by calling 110 free of charge.
Donations despite inflation
This stability “underlines the commitment and confidence” of donors, while “inflation weighs on the economic situation of the French who have to make a lot of sacrifices”, reacted the general manager of Sidaction, Florence Thune. As usual, these funds “will be donated to research and care programs and to associative programs for the care and assistance of people living with HIV, in France and internationally”, specifies Sidaction. .
Forty years after the discovery of the virus responsible for AIDS, “new infections are still too numerous and millions of people do not have access to treatment”, recalled Florence Thune.
According to the latest UNAIDS report, 38.4 million people worldwide are living with HIV, of which 1.5 million were tested in 2021, while 650,000 others died the same year from AIDS-related illnesses. In France, the health authorities estimate that “about 190,000 people” live with HIV, including 25,000 who “unaware of their HIV status or are not treated despite an established diagnosis”.
After the delay accumulated during the Covid-19 epidemic, screening exceeded its pre-health crisis level at the start of 2022, with more people screened in the first half of the year than in the same period in 2019, according to Public Health France. Catching up facilitated by the possibility, since January 1, 2022, of being tested without a prescription and without advance payment in all medical analysis laboratories.