Letter: The French attitude on Aids awareness

Sir: Normally I am resident in Paris, and am back in the UK for a period of convalescence. Having been resident in Paris for more than 18 months, I am afraid I must say Adam Mars-Jones (27 April) is woefully out of touch with the situation vis-a-vis Aids awareness and prevention in France.

The high figures are to no little extent contributed to by the high incidence of infection amongst haemophiliacs, as a result of criminal negligence. Aids awareness is perhaps at an all-time high in France, with regular large-scale demonstrations (numbering participants by the thousands) in central Paris, organised by Act-Up and other Aids-concerned organisations.

For months, media attention has been focused on the issue by the 'sang contamine' trial of Michel Garretta and others; by the controversy surrounding the installation of contraceptive dispensers in lycees; and most recently by the death of Cyril Collard, whose autobiographical film, Les nuits fauves, was highly honoured at the Cesar ceremony this year.

The high incidence of infection is to a large extent the result of unchanged sexual attitudes among the younger population in particular, according to a recent national sex survey. That is a human problem, not a French problem. Overall, I would agree with the thrust of Adam Mars-Jones's article: Aids is far from over. But the French attitude and awareness is preferable to the recent attempts in the UK to sweep the problem under the carpet, on the pretext that we are 'through' the crisis.

Yours faithfully,

ALAN HART

North Harrow,

Middlesex

27 April