Visiting Dijon on the occasion of the presentation of the “City committed against AIDS” label, Jean-Luc Romero-Michel, president of the Élus Locaux contre le AIDS association, answered questions from France Bleu Bourgogne.
What will this label bring to the city of Dijon?
Jean-Luc Romero-Michel : Visibility is already a strong message to the people who live with it, who are mostly hidden. And then this obligation to commit even more. This is the objective that we have at ELCS, which we share with UNAIDS, that is to say: in 2030, no more transmission of HIV. Today, we have the means if we carry out the necessary campaigns to raise awareness. Here, as close as possible, in Dijon, we can raise awareness by telling them: “go get tested, go ahead, don’t be afraid“And if you are HIV positive, you will have treatment, you will be able to live with it, you will be able to love. So there is no longer any reason today why you should not get tested.
Why is the city of Dijon rewarded with this label?
The National Office of Local Elected Officials Against AIDS (ELCS) voted in favor of Dijon, believing that this city was committed, that there was both an assessment and that there were also promises of commitment. It’s important. There are more people living with HIV than ever before. We have crazy hope of arriving at the end of AIDS and unfortunately, we don’t talk about it anymore. When a city like Dijon wants to get involved, it is important to be at its side.
What are the commitments of the city of Dijon, its results and its projects?
They have an action on prevention, help to associations, help to the sick, help to the CAARUD (Reception and support center for the reduction of risks for drug users – it is located Rue Fèvret in Dijon, Editor’s note), risk reduction among drug users. And then of course to continue on this path. SO, when we have hope for a world without AIDS today, as we no longer talk about HIV, even though there are 40 million people in the world who live with this virus, no one is involved anymore, or at least very few. That’s why it is important that a city like Dijon has this desire to put in place measuresto help associations which, in the field, like AIDES, are doing quite remarkable work, especially since we also have new challenges, and we are engaged with ELCS, with these new challenges. I am thinking, for example, of the question of chemsex, which is an extremely important question. A certain number of elected officials from Dijon have also signed a manifesto that ELCS launched on this subject. It’s very important to get involved in this too.
What is this “Chemsex Emergency” manifesto?
Today, we have great concern. About 30% of homosexuals practice chemsex, that is to say having sex with new synthetic drugs. The state does nothing. Today we have deaths. For example, in Paris, it is one death every twelve days. No information, no prevention, only the associations are abandoned. We call, and this is the interest of this manifesto, the State to implement measures. The State has had in its drawers, for three years, a report which asks it to carry out an epidemiological study to find out the number of deaths, the number of people who commit suicide, and to put in place measures, to help associations who accompany people. For the moment, nothing is happening. With ELCS, we launched this manifesto, which we can sign on Change.org. Fortunately, parliamentarians are starting to mobilize. I believe we reached 80 parliamentarians these days. Around forty large cities in France, including Dijon elected officialssupport this manifesto. It’s like at the start of AIDS. It’s desperate: because we have the impression that it only affects gays, the public authorities are not moving. From the start of HIV until 1987, President Mitterrand did not say the word AIDS. And there, we have a government whose Ministers of Health – Ms. Darrieussecq is completely absent on this subject – do not say the word chemsex, as if it were a bad word. And above all, sometimes I have worries. I, who am also homosexual, say to myself, because it only concerns homosexuals, the State does not act. Whereas today, we know that this is false, since there are more and more studies which demonstrate it: there are more and more heterosexual women who practice chemsex. There is an emergency and that is why we are calling on elected officials, so that they can help us mobilize this government and these successive governments. It’s difficult to mobilize people on this issue, whileit really is a real question of public health.
So, the State has difficulty mobilizing and mobilizing on these issues, on HIV issues. But what means do local authorities have to mobilize to fight HIV?
-Local authorities are closer. We say that AIDS can also be cured through politics. It’s making signals. When the city of Dijon says “I want to be a city committed to AIDS”, it is a sign that it is already giving to people who live with it. You know, in Dijon, there are a certain number of people living with this virus. Most don’t say it, are hidden. They are afraid to say it. You can still imagine that in 2024, a study that AiDES has just done for its 40th anniversary tells us that 11% of French people would like us to isolate HIV-positive people. Do you see this knowledge that there is today? We have to show that we are alongside HIV-positive people, it’s important. We support all initiatives. If we manage to screen all people living with the virus and put them on treatment, most will no longer have a viral load. And that’s how we can get to the end of AIDS. Hence the importance of cities like Dijon in this fight.
Precisely, there are preventive and antiretroviral treatments… Is that also part of the preconceived ideas that need to be destroyed about HIV?
There is PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis). This is extremely important. PrEP is a protective, highly effective pre-exposure treatment. An HIV-positive person today under this treatment can no longer infect. This is why these stigmatizations, these rejections of HIV-positive people are scandalous today. Nothing, scientifically, medically, justifies this. I tell people, don’t be afraid, and don’t be afraid to build a love life, a sex life, with an HIV-positive person under treatment. It cannot infect you and you can even, when you are HIV positive today, have children. All these preconceived ideas need to fall away and HIV-positive people can finally be considered as full-fledged citizens, and we need to fight against AIDS. Yes, we must fight against AIDS. We must not fight against people who live with.
Is this the message you want to convey through the awarding of this “City committed against AIDS” label to the city of Dijon?
Here I work a lot with Christophe Berthier, deputy town hall. It must be said that the elected officials who are really local elected officialsconvey this message of acceptance of others. And then to break down these misconceptions that we have today around the fight against AIDS and also to fight on other issues such as the question of chemsex. Because we must also be supportive, without judgment, of people who need to be helped and who do not have the answers they might want.
