2024-03-01 09:34:26
It is estimated that 25,000 people in France are unaware of their HIV infection. There would be 450 in Normandy. They risk being detected at a late stage of the disease, being exposed to serious complications and unknowingly transmitting the virus to their partners. If they knew their HIV status, they might, like the majority of the 190,000 people living with HIV in France, be effectively treated and no longer transmit the infection, underlines Hugo Benoit, project manager at Normandy Health Insurance.
The HIV Test system set up in Normandy allows you to be tested while benefiting from 100% coverage, without upfront costs. Socially insured persons and their dependents, but also beneficiaries of state medical aid, can request to be tested in a medical biology laboratory, without an appointment or prescription or medical prescription.
The device, which is added to other screening possibilities, is increasingly in demand. Between 2022 and 2023, the number of HIV tests carried out in Normandy increased from 6,556 to 32,546, indicates Hugo Benoit. 34% of HIV diagnoses are made at an advanced stage in the region and only 22% at an early stage. In Normandy, in 2022, between 124 and 174 people discovered their HIV status. Nationally, the number is between 4,230 and 5,740.
HIV. When and where to get tested?
The screening test is strongly recommended in a number of situations. After unprotected sex with a partner whose serological status is unknown, seropositive without treatment or with an uncontrolled viral load; in case of relations with several sexual partners; if your partner has other sexual partners; for men who have sex with other men (screening recommended every three months); in case of intravenous drug use with exchange of injection equipment with other people; for injecting drug users (annual screening), in case of sharing crack pipes or straws; for people from areas where HIV infection is common, notably sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean (annual screening). Everyone, excluding the risk of exposure to a risk of contamination, should take an HIV screening test at least once in their life, between the ages of 15 and 70, says the project manager at Normandy Health Insurance.
In addition to the HIV laboratory test system, screening can be done:
– in a medical analysis laboratory on prescription from a doctor or midwife.
– from an association fighting AIDS, CeGIDD (free information, screening and diagnostic centers), sexual health centers which offer free HIV TROD (rapid diagnostic orientation test).
– at home with an HIV self-test. They are available in pharmacies and are not reimbursed by health insurance.
For HIV TROD and HIV self-tests, this involves taking a few drops of blood from the fingertip.
People without social security coverage or wishing to remain anonymous are referred by laboratories to the Free Information, Screening and Diagnostic Centers (CeGIDD). The people who contact CeGIDD are rather young, confides Anaïs Lesourd, infectious disease doctor, medical coordinator of CeGIDD at Rouen University Hospital, between 20 and 35 years old. The six CeGIDD and twelve branches in Normandy can diagnose human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). You can also meet a social worker, a psychologist or a sexologist, be prescribed contraception or be vaccinated once morest hepatitis A and B and the papillomavirus.
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