HIV: Promoting Testing

by Terpan Prévention in Interesting news, Prevention and awareness, Prevention and health 31/05/2016

The InVS (French national institute of health monitoring) provides an epidemiological update on the “discovery of HIV and AIDS seropositivity”.

Diagnoses of HIV infection and AIDS are subject to mandatory reporting by health professionals (biologists, public and private sector physicians). The InVS centralizes these declarations and updates them annually. This report not only informs us about the evolution of infections over time, but also allows us to characterize them socio-demographically, to analyze the mode of propagation as well as to measure the effectiveness of diagnoses according to whether they are more or less early. Thus, after a decrease in the number of HIV-positive discoveries per year in the early 2000s, this number has remained stable since 2007.

The conclusion of this report tells us that the effectiveness of prevention requires “a diversification of the tools available (condoms, screening, pre-exposure prophylaxis and post-exposure prophylaxis). We also note the impact of the multiplication of screening offers (traditional laboratory screening, anonymous and free screening, community screening by rapid diagnostic orientation tests (TROD), self-tests), and the decrease in late diagnoses. Knowing one’s HIV status as soon as possible limits the risk of spreading the disease. The use of screening, particularly after risk-taking, must therefore continue to be promoted.