SIDACTION (Action AIDS/HIV)

This week in Paris, everywhere you probably see the sign of SIDACTION. Roughly translated it means, Action AIDS (SIDA in French). Throughout the week there are programs or telethons on tv and you see people on the streets asking people to donate to SIDACTION.

The organization funds (according to their website) many AIDS/HIV related activities, including prevention programs, access to treatments for people in need including in poor countries outside France, paying doctors treating AIDS/HIV patients in poor countries, and funding research on the subject of AIDS.
We probably think of HIV or AIDS as not so dramatic anymore. But, though people living with AIDS can now live a long time rather than dying quickly before the multiple antiretroviral treatments were discovered, it remains that many people living with AIDS are more likely to have a quality of life lesser than those without and are even more likely to be socially isolated than others (due to inability to work for example or stigmatization of people living with AIDS by others). And too many still die from AIDS. There are also secondary effects of the treatments that are not negligible and may even be as bad as the consequences of the HIV virus itself. Lastly, there is still no cure of AIDS. People remain seropositive though controlled by the medications they take. Wrongly, with the existence of these medications (that indeed are incredible as they render HIV/AIDS not a mortal disease, though sadly sometimes still considered as moral disease :-(  ), people start considering AIDS/HIV as almost a banal disease.

Talking to people I also observe a lot of misunderstanding still of HIV/AIDS. Hence, the prevention and information programs. Many do not make the distinction between being seropositive (having/carrying the virus VIH)  and being ill (having AIDS). Many people probably do not know that they have the HIV virus in their body. The virus can stay a long time without any effects that a person will notice (except, when a person just got infected, he or she will probably show symptoms like the common cold...). Years can pass before the virus makes itself known (by then already in the tens if not hundreds of thousands attacking the immune system of the person). People will then feel tired, lose weight and probably catch some infection that could be fatal given that the immunity system of the body is shot. Lab techniques can now measure levels of virus in the blood (viral load, the higher the more sick the person) and CD4 a type of white blood cells that protects the body from infection. Normally the level of CD4 should be upwards 500 to 1200 cells/mm3. A person is said to have AIDS when the CD4 count is below 200 and probably has a very high viral load. Commonplace infections (lungs or others) can at this stage be very life threatening as the body simply cannot fight the intruder.
Misconceptions may also concern how HIV may be transmitted. If many people now know that they cannot 'catch' AIDS by sharing cups or toilets ...other misconceptions remain. How many times have I heard guys I meet for a sex rdv say that they would like to fuck me raw and will pull out just before they come (they believe if they don't come in me, they will not give or get the virus) ? OK, probably not as bad as President Zuma (South Africa)'s assertion that one only needs take a shower to avoid getting AIDS... but still !!!!!

If medical research does get a lot of attention, social research on the subject is not to be neglected. The questions of what people believe and how these beliefs influence their behavior as well as the social and psychological well being of people living with HIV/AIDS are all too important for many of today's societies. In France around 7000 (new) infections are discovered each year. In Africa, access to treatments is still very minimal for economic and social reasons. There are also social taboos. Speaking to Asian gay friends, some of them express that they would rather die of AIDS than reveal their homosexuality and bring shame to their family....

To donate, you can go to SIDACTION website. I just did, even if not much (I figure I will cut down on my smoking and buy fewer packs of cigarettes at least for this month ....). Every little bit helps...