Posted on July 28, 2014
Source: USA Today
Stigma and discrimination have always played a major role in the global AIDS epidemic, but they are getting renewed attention this year at the ongoing International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia.
A study released Monday at the conference shows that vulnerable communities in Nigeria fared far worse after legislation was passed criminalizing gay male sex. And in a panel scheduled for Wednesday , researchers were expected to discuss way to help advocates, doctors and patients combat stigma.
The past year has seen both unprecedented advances in gay rights - with expanded marriage equality in the U.S. – and even more significant setbacks, with discriminatory laws passed in Nigeria and Uganda and Russia's president Vladimir Putin speaking out against gay rights, said Richard Parker, a professor of sociomedical sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York.
"The fact that in 2014, this kind of legislation is being passed in countries around the world is mind-boggling," he said, adding that such state-legislated prejudice "creates a climate of fear that drives people underground into the shadows, away from services."
The new study from Nigeria shows that patients who lack treatment are more likely to transmit HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, making it harder to control the epidemic, which has already infected 35 million worldwide.
"From Nigeria, we get a very clear answer that (the new laws) are aiding and abetting the virus and making it much more difficult if not impossible to provide basic services to people in need," said Chris Beyrer, incoming president of the International AIDS Society, which runs the conference.
