“The undetected”, the word slams on the front page of Liberation as a challenge on the occasion of World AIDS Day. If the care of the sick is an undeniable success, prevention and screening remain two obvious failures in this war against the disease. 7,000 to 8,000 new contaminations every year, the epidemic remains active. But another figure makes Eric Favereau jump: 30,000 HIV-positive people do not know their status, 30% of whom discover it when they are already at the AIDS stage.
And the journalist recalls the failure of the policies carried out in the past to encourage screening. That of Roselyne Bachelot in 2011 who recommended a screening strategy applied to the entire population. Skepticism from GPs and, three years later, no progress. “It’s a challenge that we can’t meet. It is not that there are not enough tests carried out in France, but the tests which are carried out are often useless, in any case they do not manage to reach the people who pass through ”, explains to the daily Prof. Gilles Pialoux, head of the infectious diseases department at the Tenon hospital (Paris).
For Bruno Spire, president of Aides, “screening must be taken out of the hands of the doctor”. The association has set up, with Health Insurance and local committees, rapid diagnostic orientation tests (TROD). After an interview with a trained volunteer, anyone can, after a simple prick on the finger, have a result in thirty minutes. This program, which has made it possible to carry out 50,000 tests, is producing very good results. The rate of discovery of seropositivity is 3.5 times higher than the general average.
Reaching out to populations, targeting screening according to populations and risk behaviors, mobilizing paramedical personnel, the formula seems effective. Evidenced by the initiative taken by some emergency services in Ile-de-France. Initially, reports the newspaper, 27 emergency services were mobilized to offer TROD for six weeks. Lots of energy spent and mixed results in terms of efficiency.
But by tightening the offer around eight sites, entrusting this screening to nurses and organizing it around questionnaires, the device is effective.
So, summarizes Jean-François Delfraissy, director of the National Agency for Research against AIDS, in the columns of Liberation, “prevention must be multifaceted, and above all, it must be daring”. “We can no longer continue to watch the epidemic continue,” continues the director of Aides.
