SafetyIssues Personal and Public Safety News Articles: HIV Conference Highlights Prevention

HIV Conference Highlights Prevention
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Staff writer for safetyissues.com on 08/04/08 01:37:00
 
The head of the World Health Organization China unit emphasized that health
officials of all countries — the U.S. included — have to accept there have
been setbacks in HIV prevention among gay men. There is a need for health
authorities to engage this group in all efforts to combat HIV.
The presidents of Mexico and St. Kitts and Nevis, along with the former
president of Botswana, all appealed for ending discrimination against gay men.
Gay populations have been disregarded by many HIV prevention programs over the
last quarter century largely because of discrimination and, in the case of
several countries, outright criminalization. The UNHIV executive director said
that homosexual activity in many nations is against the law. Gay activity thus
tends to go underground, putting them out of reach of prevention programs.
Even in the U.S., although homosexual activity is not illegal, the Bush
government has taken a reactionary stance on HIV prevention. Since it took
office in 2001, the Bush administration spent billions of dollars on messages
encouraging abstinence instead of focusing programs on the most heavily affected
populations.
The government’s strategy to combat HIV has been to preach abstinence to young
people, to dismiss the use of condoms as ineffective, and to deny access by drug
users to crucial services for HIV prevention. Its foreign policy on HIV follows
much of the same tack, disbursing foreign aid only to support abstinence-only
programs.
The Centers for Disease recently reported a 75 percent increase in new
infections among gay men over the last 15 years. Among males infected by HIV,
more than 7 out of 10 are men who have sex with other men.
Outside the formal conference sessions, various groups working with HIV-infected
people, including national AIDS foundations, also meet in informal interaction.
Everyone appreciates the chance to network with people committed to the same
goals, and to exchange information and experiences with scientists and
researchers attending the conference.
All health professionals inside the hall and activist groups outside agree that
the use of condoms is an effective prevention tool and should be promoted.
According to many studies, condoms are 90 percent effective in preventing virus
transmission.
But the most important policy for governments is to decriminalize homosexuality
and sex work, and to reshape illicit drugs policy so that health treatment for
people with addictions will be more important than criminal prosecution.
Prevention is still the key. But it will take a more enlightened approach than
the reactionary programs governments have put in place so far.