Red Cross launches campaign-stigma

CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News Update
Tuesday, May 07, 2002
Associated Press (05.06.02)::Jonathan Fowler
The international Red Cross announced Monday that it is
launching a new campaign to tackle the stigma and discrimination
faced by people with HIV/AIDS - prejudice that it says stokes
the worldwide epidemic.
The federation plans to step up existing programs that
provide accurate information about the disease, offer counseling,
and encourage young people to reduce the risk of infection. Part
of the new publicity campaign, entitled "Take a Look: Stigma
Kills" will involve blindfolding the presidents of Mozambique,
Honduras and Belize. An infected person will remove their
blindfolds. The Red Cross wants officials and other public
figures worldwide to follow the example. The federation will lead
the way by running its own program to recruit people who are HIV-
positive as Red Cross volunteers and is encouraging existing
members to speak out.

     Millions of people worldwide fail to seek treatment for
AIDS, where drugs are available, because they are afraid of
public attitudes, according to the International Federation of
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. About 40 million people
worldwide are infected with HIV, according to the UN. "Every
year, some 800,000 babies are born with the infection," mainly in
Africa, said Dr. Alvaro Bermejo, head of the federation's health
department. "Many of their mothers took AIDS tests but preferred
not to collect the results out of fear of discrimination if they
were found to have it - the mothers prefer to have infected
children and to die themselves." And infected babies are being
born in regions like Western Europe, Bermejo said. "So, it's not
just a question of access to drugs, which are freely available
there."
     Even in a US state like Connecticut, with a long-established
program to tackle AIDS, many members of minority communities fail
to come forward for treatment because of cultural pressures,
Bermejo said. "Treatment is important," he emphasized. But even
if a vaccine is developed, many people will fail to take it
unless the stigma of the disease also can be removed, just as
they have avoided antiretroviral treatment, he added.

"Teenagers 'Complacent' over HIV"
BBC News (05.07.02)
     Teenagers in the United Kingdom think of AIDS as something
that will not affect them, according to new research conducted by
UK analysts Datamonitors. UK cases are soaring by 50 percent and
are expected to hit 34,000 by 2005. Researchers found people
under 30 years old were particularly vulnerable and lived a
lifestyle "almost in ignorance of the threat of AIDS."
Governments, parents and healthcare providers need to take urgent
actions now to stop a health crisis, the researchers said.

Dr. Dheeraj Khiytani, an HIV analyst at Datamonitors, said
that since the tough government advertisements of the 1980s,
media interest died down and people were becoming complacent.
Cases of STDs are on the rise. Khiytani said that TV programs
like EastEnders, which features an HIV patient, destigmatize the
disease but might also create the impression that all those with
long-term HIV can live "a completely normal life." He also blamed
an increase in recreational drug use for accelerating the
progress of HIV, along with the fact that people are skipping
drug treatment doses to avoid side effects.
"Young people don't see sexual health and HIV as a priority
- this, combined with the recent dramatic rises in rates of
[STDs], demonstrates that we are storing up problems for future
generations," said Nick Partridge, chief executive of the
Terrence Higgins Trust. "Teenagers who were at school during the
AIDS awareness campaigns of the 1980s are now adults, but today's
teenagers are much less aware of the facts - a survey last year
found that 40 percent of 11-year-old boys had never heard of
HIV," Partridge said.

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