The stigma of AIDS

Since the very moment AIDS was known, it has been taboo and stigma. The disease especially affected groups marginalized by society (gays, heroinophiles), caused death, spread through body discharges, there was no remedy... These were the messages that were disseminated at that first moment and, although 35 years have passed since then, and although at that time there has been enormous progress, the stigma has not completely disappeared.

 

Of course, the situation varies greatly from place to place, but in industrialized countries, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the blood is no longer synonymous with AIDS disease. Moreover, people receiving treatment have an undetectable level of virus in the blood and do not contaminate the virus.

 

The key is early diagnosis. However, tobacco and fear cause some people who have experienced risk practices not to immediately carry out a diagnostic test, which involves, on the one hand, a delay in treatment and a worsening of prognosis and, on the other, a risk of contagion for other people. That is why it is so important to highlight the success of antiretrovirals so that the stigma dissolves once and for all.

 

In this regard, a recent investigation is noteworthy. Named Partner2, 14 European countries participated. For two years, 782 gay couples have been followed. In all couples one member had no virus and the other took antiretrovirals. All of them have had unprotected sex (they also determine the number of access to research: 76,000) and, within couples, there has been no infection (15 new infections were diagnosed but all of them contaminated by a person outside the couple).

 

This study confirms the results of the Partner1 study in 2016. Partner1 analyzed the consequences of 58,000 uncondom intrusions and no infections were detected, but male relationships were not statistically significant. Thus, although they showed that vaginal penetration was safe, they concluded that specific research had to be done with men. And now they have borne fruit.

 

The data have shown that it is time to end stigma and it is the responsibility of the whole society. In the meantime, we must not forget that in many other places in the world the situation is much worse. In fact, this same week data from 47 sub-Saharan countries have been published in the journal Nature. In adults aged 15 to 49 years, the evolution of AIDS prevalence has been measured in the years 2000-2017, with an increase in 15 countries. It seems difficult to achieve the goal of the United Nations: Ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.