The Sidaction association received €3.9 million in pledges for the fight against AIDS during the 31st edition of its annual fundraising weekend, a slight increase compared to last year.
"It is essential to continue this surge of solidarity because the mobilization must be sustained over time. The challenges we will face are immense, and the financial needs, particularly for research, will be considerable in the months and years to come," Florence Thune, CEO of Sidaction, said in a press release on Sunday evening.
The association has collected exactly 3.909 million euros in pledges, an amount almost similar to 2024 (3.87 million euros).
"Thanks to research, we can live with HIV; by supporting research, we can live WITHOUT it," proclaimed the association this year, co-founded in 1994 by Pierre Bergé and Line Renaud.
"Priority" is being given to "future treatments to achieve remission, if not a cure," stressed Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, president of Sidaction, co-discoverer of the virus and Nobel Prize winner in medicine, on Saturday on France Inter.
The funds raised will also go to associations that support "the most vulnerable people, who are unfortunately the most vulnerable to HIV infection," she added.
Sidaction, which funds community programs to help people living with HIV in France and internationally, including in Africa, is concerned about the consequences of Donald Trump's government freezing almost all programs run by the American development agency USAID, through which a large portion of global humanitarian aid passes.
"This money" was used "to treat the sick, and also to prevent infection," Françoise Barré-Sinoussi recalled on Saturday, describing the American president's decision as "a catastrophe for the years to come."
Several hundred HIV specialists urged the United States last week to restore its contributions. The cuts could "cause the deaths of approximately six million people over the next four years," they said.
In France, some 200,000 people are living with HIV and nearly 5,500 new HIV positive cases were discovered in 2023.
Despite progress over the past 20 years, nearly 40 million people worldwide are still living with HIV, about a quarter of them without treatment, and more than 600,000 die each year from AIDS.
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