HIV, AIDS. These letters, everyone knows them, everyone is afraid of them. And everyone knows that to guard against it, it all starts with the simple act of wearing a condom. However, even today, thousands of people contract HIV every year in France. For some, they are unaware of having been, for lack of screening.
And no age group is spared. On the occasion of December 1st, World AIDS Day, “the association Sidaction emphasizes prevention among the over 50s,” says 20 minutes Nicolas Gateau, thematic manager at Sidaction. He reveals the reasons for this choice.
Why did you choose this year to target, with the prevention campaign, people aged 50 and over?
In the collective imagination, we imagine that after 50 years, we have a sexuality at half mast, even dormant. But our survey shows that this is not the case, since 72% of people aged 50 to 79 say they are sexually active. Among them, two-thirds say they are in a couple, and 14% say they are sexually active single. And among single people, 6% say they have had several partners in the past year, on average 6.6.
However, a significant proportion of people aged 50 and over feel less concerned about HIV, believing that it is a disease that affects young people more. A feeling that is also found among young people, who conversely think that HIV affects older people more than them. Everyone tends to believe that the virus rather affects another age group, but all ages are affected.
But what is disturbing, and problematic, is that while 89% of those over 50 consider themselves fairly well informed about the disease, and only one in two respondents say they are afraid of HIV/AIDS. This translates into risky behavior of which they are not necessarily aware. The risks are however real, since among the 6% of 50-79 year olds who say they have multiple partners, a quarter never use a condom and two thirds do not carry out a screening test.
You are therefore launching the “Tubes that protect” campaign. What does it consist of?
Perhaps if this population feels less concerned, it is also because in prevention campaigns on sexual health, alerts on HIV and on sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in general, the most 50 years are little or not represented. Or at least, little or not targeted. If we address them less, inevitably, the danger seems more distant to them.
In this context, Sidaction wishes to sensitize this public by appealing to the emotional vector that is the French song. With the operation “Les Tubes quiprotect”, in which Lio, Dave, Particulier Partner, Jean-Pierre Mader and Emile & Images participate, the idea is to use this potential for sympathy and divert the tubes of these artists to educate the over 50s with humor and a bit of fun.
These five artists agreed to rewrite and re-record their hits, banana split, On the Swann side, Private Partner, macumba and Midnight Demons by including a message of awareness and prevention. For example, in his rewritten version of banana splitLio invites his partner to use a condom.
Prevention messages that apply to all ages, while screening has still not returned to its pre-Covid-19 level…
Absolutely. There was a soft patch in screening in 2020 due to the pandemic. The levels are gradually increasing, but we are not managing to reach the pre-Covid figures. This raises fundamental questions. Thus, on the figures just published by Public Health France, which lists 5,013 people diagnosed with HIV in 2021, one wonders: is this a representative figure of reality or totally underestimated since there is less screening? So many questions about the urgency of the HIV epidemic even if in recent years, the figures for contamination have been falling.
At the same time, there were fewer initiations into Prep at the height of the pandemic. On the one hand because it was more difficult to have access to practitioners, on the other hand because, for many people, the health crisis prevented them from having sexual relations, so the use of this preventive treatment could be deemed less necessary. Today, we find reassuring levels of use, but not yet sufficient within certain populations.
In addition, we see that people aged 50 and over, when they get tested, do so at a later stage, when the virus has already damaged the immune defences, which means a loss of chance,
So Sidaction is there to continue to transmit a simple prevention message: it is important to use condoms to protect yourself and your partners, and to get tested regularly to find out your status, to have access to treatment as soon as possible. in case of contamination. This is the way to live in the best possible health despite the virus and to no longer transmit the disease, since the treatment makes the viral load undetectable.
Everyone knows Sidaction, but in practice, what is the action of the association throughout the year?
Our annual edition of Sidaction, in the spring, helps raise funds. This is the tip of the iceberg. The money collected is used to finance research – fundamental, applied and clinical – to understand how the virus works, how it evolves in the body, and how to find access routes to block it. Sidaction thus remains the leading private funder of HIV in France.
There is also a funding component for associative action intended to support patients in mainland and overseas France, and also in Africa. The common point between the patients supported in France and around the world is stigmatization, discrimination and rejection. The associative fabric supported by Sidaction is there to listen, support and help, to promote and accompany access to care. And always, promote prevention and screening when, to date, it is estimated that 24,000 people are unaware of being carriers of HIV in France.