A mixed recovery for AIDS screening
The decrease in positive HIV cases detected since the covid pandemic is linked to the decrease in tests performed during this period. But after a first year caused by this new virus, the various structures are trying to step up screening for AIDS.
Health
The decrease in positive HIV cases detected since the covid pandemic is linked to the decrease in tests performed during this period. But after a first year caused by this new virus, the various structures are trying to step up screening for AIDS.
After a blank year in 2020, the organizations in charge of screening for AIDS infections are not all in the same boat. The service HIV Berodung of the Red Cross may, for his part, be delighted with a recovery in demand, after a complicated first year of Covid. “Our teams are now better established and we have also been going into the field more since last spring”, indicates Sandy Kubaj, in charge of the structure. Interventions outside with the Dimps mobile service or in partner associations such as Abrigado, have been multiplied by three compared to 2020.
But on the side of Luxembourg Hospital Center (CHL), the number of screenings carried out this year are still down compared to the last two years. They have been halved since 2019. There have been fewer tests at the hospital, because people are afraid to go there because of the health crisis, according to Carole Devaux.
Doctor Vic Arendt, specialist in infectious diseases at the CHL, said he was struck by the young age of the new patients infected this year, “12 out of 20 with AIDS are under 35 years old”. The opportunity to remind people that it is important to get tested as soon as you start having sex, says Sandy Kubaj. She also recalls that, contrary to prejudices, she is still confronted today, “kissing or drinking from a glass does not transmit HIV”.
This year, the AIDS Monitoring Committee recorded nearly 30 new positive cases for the virus, ie as many as in 2020. A lower level compared to recent years, of course, but to be put in perspective with the decrease in AIDS screenings carried out. . “In 2020, 88,000 HIV tests were carried out against 110,000 in 2019 in Luxembourg”, Carole Devaux notes.
People with HIV may turn to national service of infectious diseases to follow an antiviral therapeutic consultation. 75 people have made this choice this year, according to Committee data. They had either just been diagnosed or already knew about them. Among the patients monitored, six are infected drug users, i.e. twice as many as in 2019. Data that particularly concerns the chair of the Committee, Carole Devaux. Because since 2018, the epidemic outbreak seemed to be slowing down among Luxembourg drug addicts.
“The evolution of these figures should be watched closely, because there have been fewer drug addicts screened due to the pandemic. They could thus be more numerous in reality to be reached by the HIV ”, analyzes the person in charge of the Committee. Among this group of vulnerable patients, Dr Vic Arendt notes that “a certain number of them have interrupted their treatment”.
Last year, the Committee identified 1,118 men and women living with AIDS in Luxembourg. But nearly 15% of people collected positive will not be recognized, according to Carole Devaux.
On this December 1, AIDS Day, the person in charge of the structure is delighted that the City of Luxembourg has signed the Paris agreements with the program Accelerated Cities. A program which aims to screen 95% of people living with HIV, in order to offer antiretroviral treatment to 95% of them, so that 95% of patients reach an undetectable viral load by 2030. Thus, the people concerned would no longer transmit AIDS.
But to achieve this goal, it is important to strengthen screening. “The sooner you are tested, the less virus there will be in your cells,” recalls Carole Devaux. For her, the message is clear: “We must encourage people to be tested so that they know their status, not to fall ill and transmit the virus”. As with the covid, remarks the Chair of the Committee.
follow us on Facebook, Twitter and subscribe to our 5 p.m. newsletter.