New HIV infections are increasing among homosexuals, drug users and prostitutes who don’t seek help because of laws that criminalize these practices, the head of the UNAIDS agency said on Monday.
UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe said “it is unacceptable” that 85 countries still have laws criminalizing same sex relations among adults, including seven that impose the death penalty for homosexual practices.
He called a proposed Ugandan law that would impose the death penalty for some gays “very unfortunate” and expressed hope it would never be approved.
At a time when UNAIDS is scaling up its program and seeking universal access to HIV treatment, Sidibe said he was “very scared” because bad laws were being introduced by countries, making it impossible for those at risk groups to have access to services.
“You have also a growing conservatism which is making me very scared,” Sidibe said.
“We must insist that the rights of the minorities are upheld. If we don’t do that ... I think the epidemic will grow again,” he said. “We cannot accept the tyranny of the majority.”
Sidibe told a group of journalists at a luncheon hosted by the UN Foundation that in countries from China to Kenya and Malawi, about 33 percent of new HIV infections are in men having sex with men, a significant increase.
By contrast, he said that in the Caribbean where most countries don’t have repressive laws, only between 3 percent and 6 percent of HIV infections are in male homosexuals.
Even in the US, where laws are not restrictive and the gay community was the first to tackle AIDS, Sidibe said it was “shocking” that more than 50 percent of new HIV infections last year occurred among homosexuals. He added that in the 19-25 age bracket, the infection rate was even higher.
“After almost no cases a few years ago we are seeing again this new peak among people who are not having access to all the information, the protection that is needed,” he said.
In addition to failing to adequately deliver the right messages about AIDS prevention, Sidibe blamed complacency in a new generation that has access to treatment.
He added that this was not just a problem in the US but in Europe and Africa as well.
Sidibe said drug users were also getting the HIV virus that causes AIDS in high numbers.
Of the 16 million people in the world who are injecting drugs, almost 3 million are HIV positive, and among them less than 4 percent have access to treatment and less than 8 percent have access to services, Sidibe said.
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