Sofia, November 11, 2022
On November 11, 2022, the final conference of the ARIE project was held in Sofia. The project is supported by the Erasmus+ Sport program, led by the long-standing Italian partner of BFPA ANLAIDS – Lombardia. The 
rest of the participating organizations are from Bulgaria, Greece, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia. The activities are aimed at people living with HIV (PLHIV), the goal of the project is to develop and introduce a fitness program and an activity protocol for people living with HIV. In Bulgaria the project was coordinated by Boyan Mladenov from the BFPA team. Among the participants of the conference were health specialists, professors from medical universities, NGO partners, representatives of the target group. From the Bulgarian side the most outstanding was the presentation of Prof. Radka Argirova “HIV,Covid and Monkeypox - what more we have to know”
The project aims to promote physical activity in the form of personalized guidelines among people between the ages of 18 and 50 who are living with HIV and who are on treatment, offering an innovative fitness protocol to engage them in moderate physical activity.
This is the first project in Europe specifically targeting people living with HIV and fitness to promote a healthy lifestyle and add fitness protocols to HIV therapy.
There is a need for special support from psychologists, as it appears that stigma and self-isolation are still a problem for PLHIV.
As a result of the efforts of all partners, we found an improved body mass index of the participants, an optimized distance covered in six minutes while comparing results before and after the program.
Details of the activities and the specifics of the work are in the especially developed European handbook, available for free provision to all interested parties.
Recent trends in the treatment of HIV are the so-called "capsid inhibitors" that people take every 6 months instead of the known protocol - every day. The studies are in phase two clinical trials. It is believed that these capsid inhibitors will be a second-line therapy, especially for people who have cross-resistance.
We find that most of PLHIV included in the pilot program change their behavior, start to live actively, do sports, that make them feel better in their bodies and improve their quality of life.
Sport makes them feel better, helps them get out of depression.
Project efforts can be useful for people newly-diagnosed with HIV.
