Prejudices are tenacious | Seronet

In interview granted to the LGBT+ media Komitid, Camille Spire, the President of AIDES returns to the absence of the fight once morest HIV/AIDS in the program of candidates for the presidential election: “Health issues are not part of the big themes addressed in this campaign, unlike the debates on security or immigration. How often do you hear regarding the means for the public hospital, the quality of care, the cost of drugs or the issue of access to treatment? asks the activist who explains that today “a person living with HIV who has access to treatment has a life expectancy similar to that of an HIV-negative person. She can live, start a family, meet people, work and grow old with the virus, without transmitting it”. But therapeutic advances are not everything: “Prejudices are tenacious. We know that one in four French people would be embarrassed at the idea of ​​working with an HIV-positive person. In the medical field, serophobia is still very present: more than 30% of HIV-positive people have already faced a refusal of care at the dentist. Discrimination that is often added to that already suffered by the populations most exposed to HIV (racism, putophobia, homophobia, etc.)” emphasizes the President of AIDES. The activist deplores the fact that the candidates for the presidential elections, no more than the mainstream media during these important political moments, are concerned regarding HIV/AIDS. “In reality, only one voice is heard on these subjects during political campaigns: ours”. And Camille Spire concludes: “It is time that activists, people concerned, vulnerable people and allies of our struggles stop fighting alone. Especially since the future President of the Republic will have to take up a crucial challenge: to contribute to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in France by 2030”.