The number of people infected with the AIDS virus has increased in Savoie since the start of 2024. The situation is similar throughout the country.
A “unusual situation”. The Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Regional Health Agency is sounding the alarm. HIV infections have increased in Savoie in recent months. The annual number went from around ten before Covid to 3 or 4 during the pandemic. It increased to 21 in 2023, while already 20 cases have been recorded since the start of the year, reports The Parisian.
These patients are all treated with triple therapy, a treatment combining three drugs. “Their profile is different from what we are used to seeing: they are adults aged 20 to 70, often having several sexual partners, with transmission during heterosexual intercourse”warns Dr Olivier Rogeau in the columns of the daily newspaper.
“A majority of people who are currently infected are heterosexuals”insists Florence Lot, head of the HIV and sexually transmitted infections unit at Public Health France. This situation affects all of France and other foreign countries. Over the whole of 2023, Public Health France has estimated the number of new HIV contaminations in France at 3,650.
A cluster in Savoie
In Savoie, 519 patients were monitored last year for more or less recent HIV infection. A cluster of 9 positive cases of the same viral strain has even been identified in recent months, around Chambéry and Aix-les-Bains, with five other cases recorded in neighboring departments.
Investigations carried out in recent weeks have confirmed that “some cases were directly linked to each other”indicated the Regional Health Agency (ARS) Monday December 9. To break the contamination curve, the ARS calls for “pay particular attention to people with multiple partners”.
published on December 13 at 11:55 a.m., Hibat Benhalima, 6Medias
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