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HEALTH: March Sets Tone For AIDS Conference
By Zofeen Ebrahim
MEXICO CITY, Aug 3, 2008 (IPS) - The rain gods failed to dampen spirits of activists gathered at the old city centre
of Zocalo to protest discrimination against those with the HIV virus. Hundreds of
activists dressed in bright tribal costumes, women dressed as skeletons and one
gay man wearing tights assembled ahead of the six-day XVII International AIDS
conference, Aug. 3 to 8.
The conference - at which some 22,000 scientists, policymakers and
grassroots workers are expected - is also the first such event ever to be
held in Latin America and will focus on the region’s issues.
While big names like the Mexican President Felipe Calderon, U.N. Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon, former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Margaret Chan,
director general of the World Health Organization, are expected at the
conference, perhaps for many 12-year old HIV positive Honduran Keren
Dunaway Gonzalez will hold far more interest and curiosity.
"When I speak to all these people, I’ll ask them to support the fight against
this illness, to give us medicine because it’s expensive and to campaign more
so children don’t get infected," she told AFP.
Organised by the homosexual community the first international March
against Stigma, Discrimination and Homophobia - about which the leaflet
explained was a "march with no parties, sexual preferences and borderless" -
- actually set the tone for the conference, HIV among the MSM (men having
sex with men), is an overlooked epidemic.
Jorge Saavedra Lopez, heading Mexico’s AIDS programme, the National
Centre for Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS (CENSIDA), speaking to media
about AIDS and homosexuality, said it was still swept under the carpet in
about half of all countries worldwide.
The same is true in Mexico City where people like Serena (name changed),
who worked in a dental surgery where she was infected, has been "pushed
out" by her family who "won’t touch or eat food cooked [by her]". Serena even
hides her condition from her neighbours, like Sandra (name changed) who
refuses to tell her extended family that her husband - an intravenous drug
user, infected her. And transgender commercial sex workers like Angela and
Diana, find living off their bodies their only option as society and authorities
reject them.
Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director, had earlier admitted at a media briefing
that, "Stigma and discrimination is going to be a very important theme of this
year’s conference and which is going to come up again and again over the
next few days." He was saying this in reference to MSM and AIDS.
Piot’s remarks were reiterated by Craig McClure, Executive Director,
International AIDS Society (IAS), stating that with homophobia growing,
"stigma, discrimination and human rights would indeed be the focus of the
conference."
A quarter of a century into the epidemic - which exploded back in 1981 -
new figures from the U.N. show that for the second time running the number
of people who are HIV positive has dropped, from around 33.2 million in
2006 to 33 million last year. The sobering fact remains that the deadly virus
has killed some 25 million people already.
While three million people are receiving treatment, every day 7,400 new HIV
infections crop up - 2.7 million new infections a year.
"When I started work on HIV and AIDS back in 1984, I assumed it would be
over in ten years. Twenty-seven years later it is still growing," said a visibly
tired Piot, running from one meeting after another to the run-up to the
conference. While "we’re seeing some real results" and have "come a long
way", there is "not a single country that has been declared AIDS-free".
Admitting that MSM was indeed an understudied population "with a dearth of
research and not enough data," Chris Beyrer, director of the Johns Hopkins
Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program, said new data
suggested that the HIV/AIDS epidemic appeared to be expanding
significantly among MSM, with the likelihood globally of such men having HIV
at least 20 percent higher than in the general population.
Additionally, HIV prevention and care services were rarely extended to MSM,
and the human rights of these men are regularly threatened. According to
him, his centre could find only 83 studies from 38 countries on the theme.
Concern about the stigma attached to the disease was echoed from various
quarters. In fact, for the first time, there will be a sex worker, who will speak
at a plenary session.
Asked if that would have an impact, Piot said, "Setting this precedence is very
important indeed to stomp off stigma and discrimination and while we see
this openness at international conferences, we do not find the same
replicated at national ones."
"The growing HIV epidemic among the MSM in Asia reminds me of the times
when it was found only in the west and Australia. The history of AIDS is one
of surprises; it pops up where and when you least expect and thus it’s far too
early to declare victory," said Piot.
"It is better to act now than pay later," he warned of countries and
governments living in denial. "Stigma is a state of mind expressed sometimes
in very violent ways, specially when it comes to MSMs." Migratory patterns,
limited access to HIV and AIDS services, machismo and homophobia, he said
made it difficult for such populations to seek treatment.
Talking about the archaic and colonial era law that criminalised
homosexuality in many countries that were former British colonies, Piot
lauded the efforts made by the National AIDS Control program of India in
challenging Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which states: "Whosoever
voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man,
woman, or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life or 10 years."
Agreeing that it requires "political courage", when asked if UNAIDS would
advocate for the repeal of such a law existing in many Muslim countries,
including Pakistan, Piot said he would find this extremely difficult to address
as "passions fly high on such issues."
(END)
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