Education: BTS students from Dembéni high school are mobilizing against AIDS – JDM

Each year BTS SP3S students must carry out prevention and awareness-raising actions organized as part of their training. “Our partners, Fahamou Maecha, Nariké M’sada, Mlezi Maore and Horizon santé, are responsible for providing prevention to secondary school students by showing them how to put on both male and female condoms, but also by giving them information on sexual health, risks, etc., how and why to protect yourself, etc. », Explains Halidi Danourya, second year BTS SP3S student and project manager. “For our part, with my class, we made a short film to raise awareness among the youngest students in high school about AIDS. For this we played real events that happen in life, in particular the discussions that young people can have on this subject with their parents or others.”

The number of cases of discovery of HIV positive on the rise in Mayotte

To carry out their action, the BTS students carried out a preliminary survey among high school students with a questionnaire. It emerged that many of them lacked knowledge about AIDS, about contraceptive methods to protect themselves, about where to be tested or even how to catch this disease. “It’s still a taboo subject,” notes Halidi, “hence the interest in taking preventative actions.” According to the latest figures published by Public Health France in its HIV-STI Public Health Bulletin, at the national level, dating from November 2023, the number of HIV serologies carried out in 2022 by medical biology laboratories was estimated at 6.5 million .

“Also, HIV screening activity, which had decreased between 2019 and 2020 in connection with the Covid-19 epidemic, increased again to reach a level in 2022 higher than that of 2019. The number of people who discovered their HIV seropositivity in 2022 was estimated between 4,200 and 5,700. This number increased again in 2021 and 2022. This increase particularly affects people born abroad, whether they were infected through heterosexual relations or sexual relations between men.

According to Public Health France, the number of HIV seropositivity discoveries (per million inhabitants) per region was 263 in Mayotte in 2021 (BSP of November 2022). In its latest report from the end of November this year, this number rose to 338 in 2022, an increase of just under 30%. “Unfortunately it is worrying because habits are difficult to change here,” laments Tsz Hoi Ho, professor of medico-social sciences (SMS) at Dembéni high school, “hence the need to inform the population, particularly the youngest.” .

Thus, the fact remains that in Mayotte this disease is clearly increasing even if Guyana has the highest discovery rate, as Public Health France points out in its report. “At the regional level, the HIV epidemic remains marked by a particular situation in the overseas regions, and particularly in Guyana, hence the importance of maintaining high screening activity there. The regions where screening activity is the greatest are often those with a higher share of early diagnoses.”

For three years now, the BTS SP3S have been organizing awareness and prevention days as part of their training. “We block about three days a year…The next one will take place on Monday for the Telethon and another one next year, in April, on the occasion of World Health Day,” concludes Tsz Hoi Ho.

B.J.