Aids, president Asa: ‘From institutions little support to associations’

“The HIV tests carried out by the associations that work in the area also allow counseling support. People also have the opportunity to talk about their sexuality, the ways of HIV transmission, with someone who does not have a lab coat on. All this is done by the associations on a voluntary basis. A voluntary service partially recognized by the institutions. Maybe we are told that we are good but we have to manage to recover material and for the various activities. There is no real support “. This was said by Massimo Cernuschi, infectious disease specialist and president of the Aids (Asa) Onlus solidarity association during the online meeting dedicated to communication on the disease, on the occasion of the presentation of the winners of the ‘Call4Artists’, launched by Gilead for the’ Together we can stop the virus’, with the aim of telling the story, through art, of the 40th anniversary of the disease. “In France, everything is handled absolutely in reverse by the system, by the public, by the state, by the health system”, said Cernuschi, recalling that “people who discover they have HIV have the same fears of being discriminated against 40 years ago. , to feel bad, to change the physical appearance “. Although today there are opportunities for therapy and coexistence with the virus. “In recent years the most important announcement has been that of the certainty that those who have HIV and are in therapy are not a danger to anyone because they are not contagious”.