UNAIDS / LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY OUTREACH

STORY: UNAIDS / LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY OUTREACH
TRT: 04:50
SOURCE: UNAIDS
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE SEE SHOTLIST FOR DETAILS
LANGUAGE: FRENCH / NATS

DATELINE: PLEASE SEE SHOTLIST FOR DETAILS
SHOTLIST:

MAY, JULY 2023, SWITZERLAND, GENEVA

1. Wide shot, Mont Blanc bridge in Geneva with Swiss flags and CU Geneva city flags
2. Wide shot, Street in Geneva
3. Wide shot, Exteriors of Dialogai that houses Checkpoint Genève, an LGBTQ+ health center offering HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STD) testing as well as psychosocial support
4. Close up, sign of Dialogai
5. Med shot, poster promoting HIV testing and STD testing
6. Tracking shot, Mehdi Outaleb, Swiss man who does regular check-ups at Checkpoint, entering Dialogai
7. Tracking shot, head nurse, Loïc Michaud, welcomes him
8. Med shot, Both are sitting for 30-minute consultation
9. UPSOUND (French) Nurse Loïc Michaud speaking: “How can I help you.” Mehdi answers: “Here for PrEP checkup.” (PrEP is a drug that prevents HIV for people at risk of being infected.) “As part of checkup we will do an HIV test and see how your kidneys are doing” .“Now that HIV test is done you will get results in 15 minutes... please do chlamydia and gonorrhea test with 3 samplings.”
10. Tracking shot, Mehdi picks up backpack and thanks nurse and leaves center
11. Med shot, Loic Michaud speaking with Checkpoint Genève Administrative Director, Christophe Catin 12. Wide shot, nurse Loïc and Christophe discussing next outreach session planned for an evening
13. Wide shot, exterior Nathan Café, LGBTQ+-friendly Geneva bar, patrons outside
14. Med shot, woman goes to Checkpoint stand asking for an HIV test
15. Med shot, Xavier Deprey, Head of Prevention and Sexual health, Checkpoint Genève as he talks to a young man
16. Med shot, nurse with surgical gloves prepping young man’s finger for HIV test (in nightclub setting thus music)
17. Med shot, nurse and young man chat while nurse puts blood drops on testing blotter pad
18. Med shot, nurse puts cotton on tip of young man’s finger
19. Close up, testing blotter pad with alcohol swabs
20. SOUNDBITE (French) Mehdi Outaleb, regular visitor of LGBTQ+ community health center, Checkpoint Genevève:
“At Checkpoint when you do testing they do the entire battery of tests. When I go to the doctor, the problem I encountered is that when the doctor asks you what needs to be checked if one does not know what needs to be tested for or even knowledge of various diseases, then one can miss out on certain things that is why I feel more reassured at Checkpoint.”
21. SOUNDBITE (French) Loïc Michaud, Head Nurse, Addiction consultant, Checkpoint Genève:
“Our main mission at Checkpoint is HIV prevention and fighting the virus and within that parameter we have a number of challenges notably to target at risk people who wouldn’t normally come to our center.”
22. SOUNDBITE (French) Mehdi Xavier Deprey, Head of Prevention and Sexual Health, Checkpoint Genève:
“A part of Checkpoint’s mandate and what we do as a team is go out and do HIV testing and reach people where they go out and party ...like here a bar, nightclub place.”
23. SOUNDBITE (French) Christophe Catin, Administrative Director, Checkpoint Genève:
“Our value added and uniqueness is that we focus on the community, by that I mean we are from the community and we help the LGBTQI+ community... we have the capability, the knowledge and we can guarantee a welcoming and safe space for all.”
24. Wide shot, Geneva street
25. Close up, feet, people walking along street

JULY 2023, THAILAND, BANGKOK

26. Street in Bangkok, with entrance to RSAT (Rainbow Sky Association of Thailand – an LBTQ+ friendly health center)
27. Close up, RSAT sign
28. Pan right, young man opening door
29. Wide shot, young man going to counselling session
30. Wide shot, young man being welcome by peer counsellor
31. Med shot, in testing room, young man with a number card to get HIV test (ensures anonymity)
32. Close up, empty test tube
33. Close up, nurse preps arm
34. Close up, nurse draws blood for HIV test and other tests
35. Close up, blotter pad for HIV test
36. Nurse puts two drops of blood on blotter pad
37. Close up, blotter pad with blood drops
38. Med shot, Sign on office wall ‘PrEP keeps HIV away’ (PrEP = pre-exposure prophylaxis is a medicine that can help prevent HIV if one is at risk of being infected)
39. Med shot, peer counsellor distributing PrEP pill bottle to a client of RSAT
40. Close up, pills

NOTE TO EDITORS / PRODUCERS: Please use the images in the context described. Unless indicated the HIV status, sexual orientation or any other characteristic of people in the images are unknown and should not be described inappropriately. If in doubt, contact UNAIDS: Sectorc@unaids.org

STORYLINE:

In its new report, The Path That Ends AIDS, UNAIDS demonstrates that there is a growing number of countries that are proving that AIDS can be ended if there is political will.

Political will means delivering on: reliable and adequate funding; following the data and evidence; reducing the inequalities and discrimination that deny people services, using scientific tools that protect well-being, and the essential element of recognizing and engaging community-led interventions.

This applies to lower- and middle-income countries as well as high-income countries. In Geneva, Switzerland, Checkpoint Genève is an LGBTQ+ health center that offers HIV prevention and testing as well as other medical and psychosocial services. It is run by LGBTQ+ staff and serves the LGBTQ+ community.

The health care workers and peer educators take turns providing services at the center but also at nightclubs, bars and other meeting places. HIV prevalence in Switzerland is relatively low, hovering at 1.29 percent, however new HIV infections are mostly among men who have sex with men, transgender people and sex workers.

That is why the health center does a lot of informative workshops on drug addiction awareness, preventive HIV drugs like PrEP and general health matters. Peer health workers and a nurse see up to 30 people a day. A doctor is on hand for more in-depth consultations.

The center ensures confidentiality and anonymity. They also conduct LGBTQ+ sensitivity training to police and businesses. The Federal Office of Public Health (OFSP) as well as the Geneva canton (state) and Aide Suisse contre le SIDA (Swiss AIDS Aid) have financially supported Checkpoint Genève since its founding in 2005.

People who visit the center say the friendly welcome and LGBTQ+ staff make all the difference in responding to their needs. In 2022, there were 58 000 new HIV infections in Western and Central Europe and North America.

Meanwhile, one quarter (23 percent) of new HIV infections were in Asia and the Pacific (300 000) where new infections are rising alarmingly in some countries.

Steep increases in new infections are also continuing in eastern Europe and central Asia (a rise of 49 percent since 2010) and in the Middle East and North Africa (a rise of 61 percent since 2010).

These trends are due primarily to a lack of HIV prevention services for marginalized populations and the barriers posed by punitive laws and social discrimination.