AIDS stigma drives HIV in India

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AIDS stigma drives HIV in India

IANS, Jul 22, 2010, 03.13pm IST

HIV prevalence in India and South Asia is growing among sex workers and other

high risk groups due to widespread failure to prevent stigmatising of people

living with AIDS, according to a new report.

Despite prevention and other efforts to reduce high-risk behaviours such as

unprotected sex, buying and selling of sex, and injecting drug use, HIV

vulnerability and risk remain high, says the report by a team from the

International Centre for Research on Women and the World Bank.

Stigmatising attitudes in the general population and discriminatory treatment by

health providers and local officials, among others, intensify the

marginalisation of vulnerable groups at highest risk, driving them further from

the reach of health services and desperately needed prevention, treatment, care,

and support services, it says.

Daily harassment and abuse also cause health problems and adversely affect

mental health, thereby leading to depression, social isolation, and an array of

adverse socio-economic outcomes related to HIV, says the report launched at the

global AIDS summit in Vienna Wednesday.

" Discrimination against people in these high-risk, marginalised groups is so

strong that they feel their lives aren't worth protecting or prolonging which

stops them from reaching out for the prevention, care, and prevention services

they need to fight the disease, " says m Claeson, co-author and programme

coordinator for the World Bank's South Asia region.

" We have been supporting efforts that tackle prejudice about HIV and AIDS at

community and national levels and break down the walls of fear and suspicion

that poison the lives of people with, or at high risk of acquiring, HIV and

AIDS. "

Approximately 2.3 million people suffer from HIV/AIDS in India. According to

UNAIDS, there were around 33 million HIV positive people globally, while there

were 2.7 million new infections and 2.0 million deaths from AIDS in 2007.

As a result of a World Bank led regional competition to find successful 'grass

roots' anti-HIV discrimination programmes, 26 programmes in six countries were

chosen for the Bank's 2008 South Asia Development Marketplace with grants

totalling $1.4 million.

These grants seeded considerable innovation. Project approaches reflected

enormous creativity, ranging from beauty pageants to restaurants run by sex

workers, the report said.

The grants led to new alliances, such as those between 'panchayat' (local

government) leaders and the Indian community organisation Lotus Integrated AIDS

Awareness Sangam, it said.

They also led to some unlikely partnerships between sex workers, police,

lawyers, and health workers. In Afghanistan, one project partnered with the

government to support religious leaders to pass on anti-stigma messaging in

their Friday prayers.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health/AIDS-stigma-\

drives-HIV-in-India/articleshow/6200751.cms