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AIDS summit turns spotlight on parolees

"What do you do if your employees refuse to work with HIV positive colleagues? If you do not have a strategy, it is already ineffective management."

Anthony Pramualratana, executive director of the Thailand Business Coalition on AIDS

The upcoming wave of paroles in the wake of a sentence commutation statute that comes into effect on Monday will present a huge challenge for AIDS prevention efforts, the nation's top health official said yesterday.

Department of Health Minister Hou Sheng-mao (侯勝茂) told an audience of business leaders, AIDS advocates and public health experts yesterday at the HIV/AIDS summit in Taipei that the fight against AIDS is "a war we have to win."

"On July 16th, 10,353 new parolees will be released, among them 635 HIV positive patients," Hou said. "We will have to ensure that newly paroled HIV positive patients are integrated back into society without spreading the virus."

Hou also highlighted advances in the way that those who are HIV positive are treated in Taiwan, echoing the summit's theme of promoting tolerance.

"We now have laws protecting the right of HIV positive patients to live and work without harassment or discrimination," said Hou, referring to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Prevention and Patients' Rights Protection Act (人類免疫缺乏病毒傳染防治及感染者人權保障條例).

The act, amended last month, states that HIV status cannot be used as grounds for denying individuals employment, medical treatment, housing or education.

It also grants foreign spouses infected by their Taiwanese wives or husbands with HIV the right to remain here.

Stephen Young, director of the Taipei Office of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), also spoke at the summit, calling for Taiwan to learn from the US' experience in the 1980s.

"Our response in the 1980s was slow and clearly inadequate," Young said, "We hope that Taiwan can learn from our mistakes."

Young also made an appeal for businesses to get involved in efforts to stem the spread of AIDS and curb discrimination for those already infected.

The summit, hosted by the Taiwan AIDS foundation, emphasized the role of business leaders in the hope of promoting the formation of a new organization, the Taiwan Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS.

Anthony Pramualratana, the executive director of the Thailand Business Coalition on AIDS, called on business owners yesterday to take responsibility for making their workplace a suitable environment for HIV positive employees.

"What do you do if your employees refuse to work with HIV positive colleagues?" Pramualratana asked. "If you do not have a strategy, it is already ineffective management."
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