World AIDS Day 2024: 'Screening is still a major issue in France' (Sidaction)

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00:00Here in France, CEDAXION is a major event that started in 1994 for raising awareness and

00:05collecting funds for AIDS and for more. We can speak to Sandrine Fournier, CEDAXION's director of French programs.

00:12Hello to you, Sandrine. Thank you for speaking to Paris Direct.

00:15We saw that report from Benin. Tell us a little bit about what the situation is like here in France.

00:22Well in France,

00:24in fact, we're in a quite similar situation to Europe where

00:30certain people living with HIV are not aware of that

00:35HIV status.

00:37So I would say screenings is still a major issue in France.

00:44Also, we have observed with 5,500

00:49new diagnoses

00:52made in

00:542023, an increase among

00:58especially women, migrant women, and men having sex with men born abroad.

01:05And when you say that certain people are living

01:08without a knowledge that they have

01:11HIV-related illnesses or AIDS, does it come down to a certain demographic or lifestyle?

01:17Or is there anything we can do to identify who those people are that are vulnerable and aren't aware?

01:24Well, we pretty much know who are the most exposed

01:29population to HIV. In fact, they're quite similar all over the world.

01:34Those are men having sex with men, sex workers, trans people,

01:40drug injectors, or prisoners.

01:43And those are also the most

01:46stigmatized population.

01:49Sometimes in certain countries,

01:52criminalized

01:53population. And really, discrimination is a major obstacle to access to prevention and care.

02:01So we have a similar situation in France, in Europe, and all over the world with some differences. For instance,

02:08and as your

02:10film just showed, in Sub-Saharan Africa,

02:16girls and young women aged 15 to 24 are particularly exposed.

02:234,000 of them were infected every week in

02:282023.

02:29And some differences in Eastern Europe, where

02:35also new infections are rising,

02:38it is more in the group of drug injectors that we found

02:43this heightened

02:45population.

02:46And so much of the work that's important here, as you mentioned, is removing the stigma

02:53for certain groups that might be exposed to these

02:57illnesses. What would you like to see governments to do to help in that regard?

03:04Well, by leading campaigns

03:07against discrimination,

03:09but also, in fact, political

03:13choices make the difference. For instance, in France, since last year, we have the possibility to go to any lab

03:21to get a screening

03:23without a

03:25free screening,

03:26without the need to go to a doctor first. And that's really, really improved

03:33and increased the tests in France in

03:392003. So there are actions, very practical actions, that can be

03:45carried out to really help. We saw various reports recently that the

03:51the pandemic, the AIDS pandemic, could be ended by 2030 if there were political will to do so. Is that

04:00realistic, do you think?

04:02Well, we're not there yet.

04:04The situation is not satisfying right now.

04:09But I would say we do have the tools. Now, the

04:13issue is to make them accessible to those who need them the most, and to

04:20really strengthen

04:22community-led actions to reach the most exposed populations.

04:27So we can probably do it by 2030, but

04:32you're right, we need really political

04:37actions. Yeah, and on that note, I mean, in France, elsewhere in Europe, in the United States,

04:43we're seeing politics becoming increasingly polarized. We're seeing society more and more fractured.

04:48Does that play a role in terms of getting people the help they need and also removing the stigma?

04:55Oh, it certainly plays a role, especially, as I said before, in France, as we observe that

05:04among migrant women, we see increase in HIV diagnosis.

05:09We have those debates to

05:12to stop the medical help that French government

05:17gives to foreigners in France. So it's really,

05:21that really, really doesn't help.

05:24And for people who might

05:26want to volunteer in this field,

05:28what advice would you give to them in terms of finding a way or working with an organization that has a

05:36credible impact on this cause?

05:40We have a lot of NGOs in France, such as AID,

05:44which is the biggest one, and

05:46which really work very well with all those affected communities.

05:52In fact, I would probably recommend people to choose

05:56considering their skills and considering the

05:59community they live in, because really,

06:03as I said, we really need to strengthen community-led actions. So if you're a person living in France and coming from Africa,

06:13get contact with an African NGO,

06:17which will be really in capacity to

06:19carry out actions, prevention actions, but also rapid testing

06:25in places where African people socialize.

06:29Sandrine, thank you very much for your time and thank you for the work you're doing. Sandrine Fournier, thank you.

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