Jacques Chirac and his friend Line Renaud (credit: O.Blaizac)

Every December 1st for the last twenty years, AIDS has pushed itself to the forefront of the world’s consciousness. Twenty years of failures and despair as Michel Kazatchkine underlined during the inauguration of the exhibition “Access to life” at the Musée de l’homme in Paris, organized by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria of which he is director. But 20 years that have also resulted in many positive accomplishments. The presence of the Nobel Prize winners in Medicine, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier, tetsify to this. Jacques Chirac’s presence also reminded the public of his 1997 appeal in Abidjan which was the first step in creating a world organization to finance medication.

As Françoise Barré-Sinoussi explains, these past two decades have “allowed us to develop tritherapy. It offers real benefits as this exhibition shows…. You can see it,” she says, “thanks to the treatment, these patients really do feel as if they have access to life!” This is the result of mobilizing scientists and politicians, governments and associations. The exhibtion “Access to life” translates these results through the portraits of thirty patients before and after the start of their treatment. These images were taken in Swaziland, a country whose rate of infection is the highest in the world; South Africa with its 5.5 million infected people; and Rwanda who has managed to treat 44,000 patients free of charge despite the serious problems the government faces in its reconstruction process. These images put human faces on the progress achieved.

“We are only half-way up the mountain”

However, despite the long road already travelled, we must maintain efforts against the epidemic. This is why Luc Montagnier reminds us we are only half-way up the mountain. “We have managed to create AIDS tests; we have discovered a treatment that works. But we are only half way up the mountain: we still do not know how to cure AIDS.” Professor Montagnier does not lose sight of the real objective: “[we must find] treatments that restore the patients’ immunity system after the tri-therapy” he insisted. “We must find a way so that patients become HIV negative after their antiretroviral treatment.”

Over 2 million of death in 2007

Scientific rallying must not slow down and neither can each of us. This is the Fondation Chirac’s message as it fights for access to high quality medication. The struggle is shared with Line Renaud who came out to warn against the dangers of letting up in the fight against AIDS. “The epidemic continues to rage”, the actress deplores. “This virus strikes with force the most fragile countries and people: in 2007, over 2 million more people died because of this disease” she reminds us. Without strong public discourse in favor of testing, too many people unknowingly transmit the virus. Too many people are in advanced stages of the disease without appropriate treatment because they prefer not to know or not to say they are HIV positive. Everyone unanimously condemns this discrimination. Michèle Barzacq, president of the Amis du Fonds Mondial Europe, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Luc Montagnier, Michel Kazatchkine agree with Line Renaud and all state: “AIDS remains taboo and that is what makes it so dangerous.

C.Samuel-Lajeunesse