HIVAIDS

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HIV/AIDS

• Ethical Issues

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Synopsis

• 1981 AIDS first recognized in the USA
• 1984 Discovery of the AIDS virus (HIV)
• 1985 First diagnostic tests available for blood
  screening
• 1986 Rapid spread of the AIDS pandemic
  throughout all Continents
• 1987 The World Health Organizations Global
  Programme on AIDS (GPA) is established and
  receives the support of the UNs General Assembly

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• 1988 London World Summit of Health Ministers on
  AIDS
• 1989 Paris Declaration on Women, Children and
  AIDS
• 1987 2009 International efforts, coordinated
  by GPA (since 1998, by UNAIDS), to develop and
  test new drugs and vaccines against AIDS
• 1996 Breakthrough in effective pharmacological
  therapy of AIDS
• 2001 The Government of South Africa wins lawsuit
  against pharmaceutical corporations on
  antivirals affordability

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THE THREE WORLDWIDE EPIDEMICS OF AIDS

• The epidemic of the AIDS virus infection itself
• The epidemic of the disease AIDS
• The epidemic of social, cultural, economic and
  political reactions to AIDS

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HIV/AIDS current figures
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UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE UN
ARTICLES APPLICABLE, AND RELEVANT TO HIV/AIDS

• The right to life, liberty and security of person
• The right to health protection
• The right to freedom from inhuman or degrading
  treatment or punishment
• The right to freedom of movement
• The right to privacy
• The right to marry and found a family
• The right to work
• The right to education
• The right to housing
• The right to information
• The right to social security, assistance and
  welfare

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WORLDWIDE FORMS OF HIV/AIDS-RELATED DISCRIMINATION

• Denial of medical treatment
• Compulsory testing
• Quarantine and detention
• Housing discrimination
• Violations of the right to work
• Violations of the right to education
• Travel restrictions

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WORLDWIDE TARGETS OF HIV/AIDS-RELATED
DISCRIMINATION

• Homosexuals
• Prostitutes
• Drug users
• Prisoners
• Refugees Immigrants
• Women
• Children

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(No Transcript)
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WOMEN AND AIDS
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Discrimination the most powerful risk and
spread factor of HIV/AIDS

• Homosexuals moral prejudice, guilt and shame
  feelings, loss of self-esteem and respectability
  seeking refuge underground (promiscuity)
• Prostitutes moral prejudice, contempt,
  punishment, fear to seek care and assistance
  driven underground
• Drug users moral prejudice, prohibitionist
  hysteria, fear to be caught driven underground
  (needle promiscuity alcohol and sexual
  promiscuity)
• Prisoners segregation, repression, violence,
  denial of opportunity or even prohibition to
  practice safe sex and to reduce drug-related harm
  increased risk (10 fold)

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Discrimination the most powerful risk and
spread factor of HIV/AIDS

• 5. Ethnic minorities marginalization,
  exclusion, racism, inaccessible and unaffordable
  prevention and care structures increased risk
• 6. Refugees scapegoats, ghettos, threat of
  re-expatriation induced to seek refuge
  underground (poor hygienic conditions)
• 7. Women subaltern role, denial of empowerment,
  rape increased risk
• 8. Children sexual abuse, abandonment
  increased risk
• 9. Developing countries economic globalization
  ruthlessly imposed by the West, colonial
  heritage, wars, social unrest, chronic
  malnutrition, starvation/wasting, immune system
  fragility non-existent, or collapsed, and
  unaffordable prevention and care structures

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CONCLUSION

• Our experience in HIV/AIDS has brought us to
  discover and recognize solidarity based on
  respect for human rights as the touchstone, the
  central insight, of a new era in public health
  policy
• (Jonathan Mann)