Press release

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AIDS: three new cases of infection each day!

University AIDS week (SIDA l'Unif) takes the form of four days of awareness raising and prevention organised by Interfaction. This campaign will stretch from this November 15 to 18 in the Place du 20 Août buildings and on the Sart Tilman Campus. This event will bring together professionals and specialists and will offer several activities, all based on the theme of AIDS: an exhibition, a conference, an evening of debate, and an information stand.

It is the members of Interfaction who are organising this University AIDS campaign, with the support of the academic authorities, with the hope of raising awareness amongst young people of the problems of seropositivity and its consequences on a social, economic and cultural level.

According to the 'Platforme Prévention Sida' (AIDS prevention platform), it is estimated that today there are some 33 million people who are living with HIV, with close to 7,500 new cases of infection worldwide each day. The situation is just as worrying in Belgium, as since the 1997 discovery of tritherapy people no longer fear AIDS and believe that it is possible to live without any problems, whilst prevention campaigns have become commonplace and go unnoticed. The result: twice as many people infected in 13 years, 1115 people infected in 2009, and three new cases of infection per day. (Plate-Forme Prévention Sida)

The University AIDS Week Programme

The conference will begin on Monday November 15 at 17.00 with the opening of the exhibition, 'Vivre ensemble, un autre regard sur les séropositifs' (Living Together: a different perspective on seropositive people), in the main hall of the Europe building at Sart-Tilman. This exhibition has been put together by the Plate-Forme Prévention Sida and will be on site throughout the duration of the activities at the Sart-Tilman campus and the 20 Août buildings.

The first lecture will be given on Tuesday 16 November, at 19.30, at the 20 Août site(salle Gothot). Entitled 'AIDS discrimination yesterday and today - the journey of a seropositive migrant', it will be given by Joëlle DEFOURNY, a psychotherapist, expert in public health and the Director of Sida Sol ASBL. This event will be followed by a screening of 'La vie après tout' (Life After ALL), a short film directed by Annie MORILLON about a young girl who learns that she is seropositive.

A journey of events and meetings with actors in the field will take place on Wednesday November 17 at Sart-Tilman. Students will be able to, amongst other things, meet representatives of Sips, the Plate-Forme Prévention Sida and UniverSud.

On Thursday November 18, at 19.30 at the 20 Août site (salle Kurth), Florence CAEYMAEX, a F.R.S.-FNRS Research Associate, and Julien PIERON, an ARC 'Contemporary politics of nature' researcher, will co-ordinate an evening of debate on the theme of 'AIDS, a disease between morals and politics.

A word about Interfaction

Interfaction is a student society which aims to bring together members of each of the University of Liège's Faculties around a shared project.

It consists of carrying out not for profit humanitarian actions and showing that it is possible to work together for a common cause despite differences in our life and professional journeys.