This Wednesday, November 24, 2021 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the death of iconic singer Freddie Mercury, who died of complications from AIDS. The opportunity to remember that, contrary to what many young people think, this disease still kills today.
- 36.3 million people have died of AIDS-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic.
- AIDS-related deaths have been reduced by 64% since the peak in 2004 and by 47% since 2010.
30 years ago to the day, lead singer of the Queen group Freddie Mercury died at the age of 45 from AIDS. He was the first star to reveal to the general public that he had the disease, which was extremely taboo at the time.
Several hundred deaths each year
“Mom visited him more times than dad. I don’t think he could take it because he looked like a skeleton towards the end. I remember dad was reading one of the articles. His tears were streaming down the newspaper and he said, ‘That should have been me instead of Freddie'”, the singer-songwriter’s younger sister remembered in a BBC2 documentary.
Today, HIV kills less, but it still kills. 680,000 people died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2020 worldwide. In France, this pathology is responsible for several hundred deaths each year. “It’s not the HIV that kills the sick, but the fact that their immune system becomes immunocompromised, so they die of infection or cancer,” recalls Professor Jacques Thèze, co-founder and CEO of Diaccurate.
6,000 new contaminations each year
173,000 people live with HIV in our country and more than 6,000 new infections occur each year, affecting a very heterogeneous and often stigmatized population. Between 20,000 and 30,000 people do not even know their HIV status, which contributes to the persistence of the epidemic.
The two cases of “spontaneous recovery” relayed by the press in recent times are extremely rare. For all those infected, HIV is “a lifelong disease, which has a heavy impact on daily life”, in particular because of the treatments and their side effects, recalls on France Info Sylvie Marcaggi, president of the association for the fight against AIDS Aiutu Corsu.
.
