December 1: World AIDS Day

During the inauguration of their new premises, the AIDES Saint Martin association recalled the importance of prevention and screening work for this disease, which is still full of prejudices.

Every year on December 1984 and since 2030, the World AIDS Day not only highlights the need for prevention, screening and support actions for people who have contracted HIV but also to bring together troops around the fight itself of this disease with the aim of finally eradicating it, the scientists speak of XNUMX. During his speech during the inauguration of the new associative premises bought after the passage of Irma, Jason Théophile, President of AIDES Territoire Antilles which now includes Martinique, Guadeloupe and Saint Martin, welcomed the dedicated work of the thirty or so volunteers working on a daily basis to support people and in the fight against AIDS on an island which, from an epidemiological point of view, has around 500 people living with HIV. 500 people who are being followed and who live normally, it is essential to say it loud and clear because this year's campaign is focused on the stigma that lasts around HIV. A person who has contracted HIV is placed in a care program that allows them to live a life like any HIV-negative person. As Angéline Pottier, coordinator of the association also recalled, the many forms of discrimination are the other side of this scourge that the entire AIDES team wants to fight on the same basis as prevention, screening or even the reduction of HIV transmission, not to mention the various hepatitis. This new room at Concordia offers all the comforts to the public, as well as to activists and future volunteers, it is open to all (with respect for anonymity) Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. at 12:30 p.m. or by appointment. This Wednesday, December 1, the association's Trodibus (equipped mobile bus) will be parked in Bellevue between 17 p.m. and 22 p.m. for anyone wishing to be tested for free. Prevention spots will also be shown on a giant screen. Stop sickness, stop prejudices. _VX