Mr President,

I believe you like the epistolary style.
Please allow me to send you this letter, Mr President, President of all the French, including the HIV infected. Today I feel a little left out. And yet it is the World Aids Prevention Day. A day of mobilization and of action. A day of fighting. A day of anger. But also a day of sadness. What else can one feel when one thinks of the 5700 lives Aids will be claiming today?
I would not like you to think that I am a somewhat insolent moaner - it is the season of confrontations - but I also have some demands. To be heard I cannot go on strike - stop treatment ? That would be suicidal and I who have been HIV positive for the past 20 years keep repeating that Aids is an obstinately lethal disease.

Letter to Nicolas Sarkozy, President of all the French. Including the HIV Infected. [suite]

So I am writing to you. I am writing to say that my life is not very bright, that the life of an HIV infected person is more like survival. I hear around me that Aids has become a simple chronic disease , that one can even get cured! Lies. Killer lies. Too many of my friends have gone, for me to bear such allegations , for me to hear such nonsense. So yes, I am going to moan, since it is a typically French attitude.
You have created a slogan ”Work more to earn more” Whatever our political stand might be, since the purchasing power is a priority for most, this could be a good solution.
However for an HIV infected person, keeping a job is a real problem: how to manage the weariness , the secondary effects of treatment which are very hard to bear ? The necessary adjustments have not been put into place. Simultaneously 43% of HIV infected people who have the age to work have no professional activity. Not because they do not want to work but because they can’t. Indeed, if the person cannot bear the work load due to secondary effects of treatment, he (she) might lose the handicapped adult allowance (AAH) and find himself (herself) unemployed and earning the minimum wage, which would have dramatic consequences on the follow-up of  treatment. Let me remind you that 25% of HIV infected people benefit from AAH. This help, which cannot be added to a salary, amounts to 621 Euros. Less than the minimum wage…. Could one not imagine a AAH which would be as much as the minimum wage to guarantee a minimum to those who, as you know, have not chosen to be infected ? Today I know that you would agree with me, Mr President, that we have to stop reasoning as if it is more of a risk than a chance for a HIV infected person to resume work.
On the other hand you declared that you wanted a France of owners. This is a dream that can be fulfilled by those who are not HIV infected. It remains unattainable for those who are infected. Indeed the access to insurance and therefore to loans for those who are infected depends on a conventional system. It has been considerably improved by the signing of the AREAS convention. But as your health minister recently said, there is a long way to go before the conditions for the granting of a loan are made more flexible, a really long way.. Please allow me to make this observation:12 % of HIV infected people have no place of their own to live in.
Last little complaint, if I may, Mr President. Not long ago I wanted to go to the United States because just like you, I love that country sincerely. But unfortunately I am not allowed to enter, I have been banished for life. Please do not think that I committed any crime or offence that would justify this lifelong sentence. NO! In actual fact, this sentence is totally unfair : I am Hiv infected and because of that, I am not allowed to set my foot on the US territory , just like 33 million people in this world. Without wanting to dwell on  primary anti-americanism, I am nearly sorry that our ancestors have given the Statue of Liberty to the United States ! Of course I could choose some other destination but in 12 other countries in this world, I am  not allowed to set my foot  either because of my being HIV positive. Globally, in half of the UNO member states, I am not allowed to live or to reside for more than 3 months. Mr President, even if France –and this is something to be proud of - is not concerned by this scandalous restriction, I know that your sense of justice  can only be upset by a totally intolerable measure and that you will feel compelled to denounce it internationally.
So , that’s it , Mr President. To be HIV infected is tough and I feel that one forgets it sometimes. To be HIV positive is to suffer from a disease from which one will die, it is to be bearer of a virus which discriminates and makes your life precarious. It is more like being guilty than like being ill. That is why I appeal to you, Mr President. Because I know you want to make things move.
Oh and yes, before I forget : if you have taken the time to read this letter, which I very much hope, you have taken five minutes of your time. While you were reading, 20 people died of Aids in the world…
Yours most sincerely

Jean-Luc ROMERO
President of “Elus locaux contre le Sida