If you want to control HIV, get rid of laws that criminalise those most at risk of carrying the virus. That's the message from UNAIDS, which this week unveiled a campaign calling for "zero discrimination".
In an accompanying report on the HIV epidemic, UNAIDS says 63 countries still prosecute people who fail to disclose that they are HIV-positive, and those who unknowingly pass on the virus.
Meanwhile, 76 countries criminalise same-sex relations – a factor that is linked to increased HIV prevalence. And in countries with punitive laws of this kind, 1 in 7 HIV-positive people report being denied healthcare, with 1 in 10 denied jobs.
A 2011 study in Botswana, Malawi and Namibia found that HIV-infected gay men were four times as likely to report fear, five times as likely to report having been blackmailed and 46 times more likely to report discrimination than uninfected gay men (AIDS and Behavior, DOI: 10.1007/s10461-010-9861-2).
UNAIDS argues that this kind of persecution obstructs progress against the disease by encouraging affected people to remain silent. "Getting to zero new HIV infections will be impossible without striving towards zero discrimination," says Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS in Melbourne, Australia.
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
