REPORT
Sidaction: Bernard has been living with HIV for more than 25 years... and antiretrovirals
Audio 01:15
Sidaction is a national collection to fight AIDS. Philippe Lissac/Godong/Photononstop
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Friday, March 24, opened Sidaction, a fundraising operation to support research, but also associations that prevent and help people infected with the AIDS virus, in France and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Meeting in Bernard, Cameroonian with HIV and on antiretrovirals.
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Since the mid-1990s, there have been very effective drugs available for living with AIDS, and they have improved over the years. They make it possible to age with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), as evidenced by the career of Bernard Bassama, a Cameroonian living in France.
Bernard Bassama, now in his sixties, has been living with HIV for more than 25 years. In 1998, however, the virus threatened to prevail. "For me, who was already seriously ill, I had difficulty breathing, I had already lost more than 20 kilos. I saw my death coming. In any case, I was already terminally ill with HIV," he says.
He was put on antiretroviral treatment and recovered. But he faces difficulties in accessing these medicines in Cameroon. At the turn of the 2000s, none were free. "As the drugs were very expensive, I did not take them very well and I resisted. My doctor in Cameroon asked me to come to France, I arrived in France in January 2003. We had to change antiretrovirals three times to really find a combination. Since 2008, my virus has been under control," he says.
Facing rejection
In addition to the fight against HIV, we sometimes had to face rejection: "My wife at the time left with the children, these are the things that hurt me the most. But I still thank especially my family and my workplace where I was very supportive. To fight the taboo, Bernard Bassama speaks openly about HIV, raises awareness in Cameroon and France. And he pleads for the latest drugs to be accessible everywhere.
The AIDS pandemic continues to wreak havoc: in 2021, 1.5 million people discovered their HIV status and 650,000 people died from infection worldwide. A quarter of the 40 million people living with HIV do not have access to antiretroviral treatment.
►Also listen: 40 years after the discovery of the virus, two generations take turns in the fight against AIDS
► Sidaction is an opportunity to talk about HIV, while the covid crisis has taken centre stage in recent years. Florence Thune is the director of the Sidaction association, which organizes the event of the same name.
We can see how large the number of infections remains!
Florence Thune, director of the Sidaction association
Valérie Cohen
To make a donation to Sidaction, you can go to the website sidaction.org
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- France
- Health and medicine
- AIDS