untitled design

Together we can stop the virus, the project to raise awareness about HIV

40 years of HIV between fear, struggles and great achievements alongside the people who live with the virus. And so, why not all end at World AIDS Day (December 1) Gilead Sciences Italia takes the field with various initiatives by fishing from the territory of Art, Cinema, Technology to tell the widest and most varied audience possible how we live today with HIV, what has changed in recent years, such as the road still to do, without ever losing sight of the ultimate goal: finding a definitive cure.

Today we can say that HIV is under control, that it is a pathology that from mortal has become chronic, that those who live with the virus, and are being treated, can no longer worry about transmitting the virus and live a peaceful life with their partner. , that today the quality of life of those with HIV has totally improved. However, from a social point of view, there is still the shadow of the prejudice related to the pathology and consequently to the main act that carries it, namely sex. It is necessary to educate on the dissemination of correct messages and on information to ensure that hostile and discriminatory words are no longer used such as ‘infectors’ or that the virus is thought to affect only a certain type of population.

Like every year, the whole community made up of Patients, Clinics, Institutions and Companies who work every day to combat the disease and its consequences, on the eve of the HIV Awareness Day par excellence, wants to make itself heard, draw attention to a virus less ‘current’ in the media but always present for still many, too many people.

At the forefront is Gilead, which for the occasion has organized a rich calendar of projects always born in collaboration with patient associations and different realities that this year range invading the field of Art, Cinema and Technology.

And so, until December 5th, at the Combo di Ripa di Porta Ticinese in Milan, the augmented reality exhibition entitled HIV Together we can stop the virus.

The works on display are the result of a collaboration between the representatives of the patient and artist Associations who from 2019 to today have given a visual, emotional and conceptual identity to each of them to tell the various phases of the patient’s journey: Diagnosis, Treatment, Success of therapies, Quality of life, Stigma, HIV and COVID-19, but not only. For the 40th anniversary edition the new works created by the young winners of the Call4Artists launched last year will be exhibited precisely to tell the 40 years of HIV, in particular: Flipper by Raffaele Leaverrea; Let’s talk about it together by Lisa Pizzato; Escape from the past in Adam Tempesta; Love UU by Giulia Tolino; That game called progress by the Bolognese artistic duo Allegria Bulgaria.

In these 40 years of HIV history, a very important role is played by patient associations who have experienced all phases of the virus closely.

“At the beginning we did not know what it was, it was an observation of cases of opportunistic infectious diseases, tumors, which were not normally present in a certain type of population. Then slowly it turned out that all of this was caused by an immunodeficiency caused by HIV. Until about ’96, people, in addition to experiencing severe discrimination due to the contraction of the virus, also experienced a serious health problem. We witnessed a real massacre in those years. Fortunately, after that, more and more well tolerated and effective drugs arrived, which slowly led people with HIV to live a life like everyone else “, he says. Massimo Cernuschi clinician and president of the ASA Association of Milan.

The Gilead Italia project is sponsored by ICAR Italian Conference on AIDS and Antiviral Research and 10 patient associations active at national level that have been working on the project for three years (Anlaids Onlus, ALA Milano Onlus, Arcobaleno ODV, ASA Onlus, Circolo Mario Mieli, LILA Italian League for the fight against AIDS, Milan Check Point, NPS Italia Onlus, Nadir Onlus, PLUS).

.

You may also like

Discover the health benefits of cod
Top News
David

Discover the health benefits of cod

At Easter Friday , many Christian families choose not to eat red meat, prioritizing only fish and seafood. Among them,

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular