Constitutional Law

Reporting On Continued Struggles In Global Fight Against HIV/AIDS

by Amy Kabaria, the Communications Fellow at ACS. Kabaria attended the XVII International AIDS Conference 2008, where a new amFAR report, of which she was a contributing author, was released.  

The weeklong 17th International AIDS Conference, which drew more than 22,000 delegates from 175 countries before ending today, started on a disquieting note when the Center of Disease Control announced that the United States underreported the number of Americans infected by HIV each year. But that news did not stifle the energy that pervaded a week of discussions, abstract presentations, plenary sessions, commercial satellite meetings, workshop and exhibit booths aimed at addressing the scientific, programmatic and policy developments in the global response to HIV/AIDS.

The results of the study released by the CDC at the beginning of the conference indicate that the annual HIV infection rate in the United States is 40% higher than previously estimated. According to the new numbers, HIV infections were roughly 56,300 in 2006 instead of 40,000, a figure that has been the U.S. estimate for more than a decade. While the CDC emphasized that the updated estimates reflect a more precise method of measuring HIV instead of an actual increase in the number of total new infections, the new data shows that infections have been steadily increasing among gay and bisexual men in the United States since the early 1990s. Men who have sex with men (MSM) accounted for more than half of HIV infections in the United States in 2006, even though only 5-7% of male adults and adolescents in the U.S. identify themselves as MSM.

A report from the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amFAR), also released at the conference, suggests that the group originally at most risk of the fatal and incurable virus twenty-five years ago is being faced with a resurgence of the epidemic worldwide. The report points to the failure of governments and global health agencies to address the HIV epidemic among MSM. Of the 128 countries that submitted country progress reports in accordance with the agreements made at the first UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS, 44 percent of countries said they did not have any information on the percentage of gay and bisexual men reached by HIV prevention and testing programs. Moreover, stigma and discrimination – both societal and legal, in the form of institutionalized homophobia and criminalization of homosexual activity – still plays a significant role in explaining the alarming HIV statistics among MSM worldwide. According to the report, consensual same-sex sexual activity remains a criminal offense in 86 countries and is punishable by prison sentences of 10 years or more in 21 countries.

Combating stigma and discrimination, which severely hinder efforts to provide treatment, testing and prevention services for MSM, was a cross-cutting theme at the biennial conference in Mexico City. (A massive anti-discrimination and homophobia march through the city’s streets drew widespread media attention on the Saturday before the conference’s opening.) Speakers at the conference’s star-studded opening ceremony noted the urgency of addressing the barriers to care. The Director-General of the World Health Organization Margaret Chan spoke about the need for targeting the epidemic among MSM. “We need to engage them, we need to take care of them, we should forget about them,” said Chan, referring to MSM communities worldwide. Former Botswana President Festus Mogae, Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, President of St. Kitts & Nevis Denzil Douglas all called for the end of discrimination against MSM at the conference.

The international conference was conducted for the first time in Latin America, a region that has been home to some of the most dynamic responses to the disease, as well as some of the greatest challenges, as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon noted in his opening ceremony address.  Just days before the AIDS conference began, Panama, the only country in Latin America where male-to-male sex was a criminal offense, repealed the legislation. Previously, Mexico passed new legislation barring discrimination based on sexual orientation.

To allow travel to the conference, the United States provided a blanket wavier for people living with HIV who needed to pass through the U.S. President George W. Bush also recently approved a measure, which would repeal a 20-year-ban on HIV-positive foreign visitors to the U.S., a move applauded in Mexico City. A top Chinese official in Mexico City for the conference has said China too is considering lifting its ban on foreign nationals with HIV/AIDS for the Beijing Olympics, which began this week.

For more coverage, transcripts and webcasts from the conference, click here.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on August 08, 2008 (boomark / email).