For the president of Sidaction, the Nobélisé Virologist Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, there are promising therapeutic tracks, but the CIVID-19 epidemic had a significant impact on access to screening and prevention of HIV.
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On the occasion of Sidaction who stands from 25 to 27 March, his president, the Virologist Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, a cool in 2008 of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the AIDS Virus (HIV) at the Institut Pasteur in 1983, evokes concerns about prevention and Screening that has declined since 2020, therapeutic and vaccine perspectives …
From the first months of the CVIV-19 pandemic, you alerted its possible consequences for the fight against HIV. What about today?
Our fears have been confirmed in terms of the impact of this epidemic on access to HIV testing, and its prevention by pre-exposure prophylaxis [PREP]. In France, screening decreased by 14% in 2020, while it has increased for several years, and the decline was 17% for the PREP, while this strategy was already underdeveloped.
This trend is found internationally, as evidenced by recent reports of the Global Fund and the World Health Organization [WHO] for 2020. About half of the world countries have reported access decreases. Screening and prevention. The numbers are quite alarming, since globally the decline in screening is overall 22% and 11% for PREP.
These data focus on the year 2020. Since then, N ‘ Has there been a catch-up?
These official figures, which are the most recent, are of course to take with great precautions, but everyone agrees that there will inevitably be consequences for the number of HIV infections in The world, or even on that of deaths, and also on other indicators such as mother-to-child transmission.
With regard to access to anti-HIV treatments, there was no significant impact at the beginning of the Pandemic of Covid-19, but it is probably a little early to conclude. Indeed, with the decline in screening, it can be expected that people will have more late access to antiretrovirals. In this area, the damage can only be measured in the long term.
Access to the prevention of mother-child transmission would have fallen by 4.5% with the health crisis, the disturbances in the first place on the African continent. It will be necessary to see how this is reflected in terms of the number of children infected in the coming months.
In any case, the situation is worrying because we risk losing years of efforts on prevention and screening. This is not just about HIV. We also have great concerns about tuberculosis, with the development of multi-resistant forms for treatments. There were also difficulties in screening and access to tuberculosis, but we know that drug interruptions are at the origin of resistance.
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