17:30 19.08.2008 | All news from "AIDS/HIV"

Africa: Discourage MSM But Treat Them

The 17th International AIDS Conference held in Mexico City from August 3 to 8 indicated that attempts to achieve most public health goals by 2010 are being slowed down by human rights violations, gender inequalities and stigma.

HIV experts from around the globe highlighted the dramatic negative impact that stigma and the denial of human rights have on the effectiveness of HIV treatment and prevention scale up. Speaker after speaker spoke of the need to respect the rights of women and children, men who have sex with men (MSMs), sex workers, injecting drug users (IDUs) and the immigrant populations.

"If the world does not heed the call to ensure the human rights and dignity of every person affected by HIV, we will not achieve our goal of universal access," said Pedro Cahn, International Co-Chair of AIDS 2008 and President of the International AIDS Society and Fundación Huésped in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

UN secretary General Ban Ki Moon said that not only was it unethical to fail to provide for the marginalized and the discriminated-against groups, it is also nonsensical in the public health sense.

The conference therefore underscored the connection between public health and human rights. We believe that the key words here are provision of treatment, care and support and on that matter the gay people deserve to receive equal treatment opportunities just like any other person. However, there is need to consider homosexuality in the contexts of different regions. In Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe where the practice is widespread and more or less culturally acceptable, the so called gay rights can be given fully. But in Africa where the orientation is largely culturally unacceptable and exists in a very limited scale, the continent should be left to discourage the practice while providing treatment, care and support to those who are already MSM oriented.

Africa is better off minimizing the MSM culture and if possible eliminating it; than allow it to engulf the society. MSM is a much more risky sex practice than heterosexual practice, therefore in a continent where there is an opportunity to check the expansion of populations of this high risk behaviour, the opportunity should be let to mature. Remember, HIV/Aids can best be handled in the behavioural sense. And also remember that rights belong to all--to those who demand and to those who think otherswise to their demands.



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