24 mars 2023
Three days of mobilization on March 24, 25 and 26. For the thirtieth edition of the event, the Sidaction association affirms: “we have never been so close to enjoying a future without AIDS”. The opportunity to recall the history of the disease and the virus which is the cause, HIV.
When did HIV appear? The origin of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has long been the subject of conspiracy theories: laboratory accident, creation of the CIA, deliberate dissemination among African populations… In reality, we know that the “ancestor of the virus is of simian origin and “must have appeared in Africa in the 1920s–30s”says Inserm. “Humans have probably been infected several times since then, through the consumption of chimpanzee meat or bites from these animals. »
The oldest infection of a human, a British sailor, has been dated in the followingmath of 1959. It was at the very beginning of the 1980s that the virus spread, first in the American homosexual community.
How is it transmitted? In 2020, a few weeks were enough to sequence the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, responsible for Covid-19. Four decades earlier, months of work involving teams of researchers from all over the world were needed to discover the cause of the unexplained disease that was not yet called AIDS, and which caused thousands of deaths.
It was therefore in January 1983, two years following the appearance of the first cases, that the French professors of the Pasteur Institute Luc Montagnier, Jean-Claude Chermann and Françoise Barre-Sinoussi discovered that this infection was caused by a virus, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which they manage to isolate.
Gradually, scientists are establishing the different modes of transmission of the virus: “by penetration (anal or vaginal) during sexual intercourse, by blood transfusion, by sharing contaminated needles in healthcare establishments and among drug addicts, but also from mother to child during pregnancy , childbirth and breastfeeding”summarizes UNAIDS.
What is AIDS? Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is therefore the last stage of HIV infection. “It corresponds to the development of one or more opportunistic diseases in infected people”, describes the Institut Pasteur. In the absence of treatment, AIDS appears eight to ten years following contamination. It is characterized by the occurrence “certain cancers and opportunistic infections such as pulmonary pneumocytosis, tuberculosis, cerebral toxoplasmosis, esophageal candidiasis, Kaposi’s disease and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma”says Inserm.
How to protect yourself from it? The condom remains to this day the easiest means of access to protect oneself from HIV (and other sexually transmitted infections). In the event of exposure to the virus, there are screening tools, from the self-test available in pharmacies to the laboratory test.
Fifteen years ago, the TasP (Treatment as Prevention) strategy entered the arsenal of methods for reducing the risk of transmission: the HIV-positive person follows a treatment that makes it possible to undetectable viral load; it can therefore no longer transmit the virus.
Another method, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), “a drug for preventing HIV infection that is particularly effective when its prescription is scrupulously respected”. It reduces by regarding 99% the risk of contracting HIV during sexual intercourse, specifies the Pasteur Institute, and by at least 74% that of contracting it during drug injections.
Can we cure it? Since the appearance of AIDS, a few remissions have made the headlines, such as those of patients in Berlin, London or Düsseldorf. Their lasting remissions, considered as cures, were obtained following transplants of bone marrow stem cells from donors carrying a rare genetic mutation, conferring a natural resistance to HIV. But for now, no large-scale reproducible treatment has yet been invented once morest the virus. On the prevention side, a candidate vaccine formulated by Inserm-ANRS has recently demonstrated “its safety and ability to induce an immune response” in phase 1 trials. Results that remain to be confirmed.
To note : To find out regarding the Sidaction 2023 program and send your donations to help research, go to the 2023.sidaction.org website. According to figures from Public Health France, in 2021, around 5,000 people living in France have discovered their HIV status. Worldwide, 38 million people are living with the virus. 40 million have died from AIDS-related illnesses since the 1980s.
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Source : Inserm, Institut Pasteur, UNAIDS, Public Health France – March 2023
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Written by : Charlotte David – Edited by: Vincent Roche