Asia-Pacific: After Medical Gains in HIV, the New War Is on Stigma

Social intolerance and inequality too often shape which groups are preferentially targeted for HIV prevention and treatment in the region, experts and advocates said Tuesday at the ninth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific in Bali, Indonesia.

Often-overlooked populations include prisoners, drug users, sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender persons, minorities, migrants, refugees, and the homeless, said Jon Ungpakorn, a former Thai senator and social activist. Unless they are included, "you're not going to have long-term sustainability in addressing HIV and AIDS," Ungpakorn said.

"It is estimated that more than 90 percent of women living with HIV acquired the virus from their husbands or from their boyfriends while in long-term relationships," noted a UNAIDS report released at the conference. "We're still not doing enough to uproot the role that gender plays in [fighting] the pandemic," said Geeta Rao Gupta, president of the D.C.-based International Center for Research on Women.

Women comprise 35 percent of new adult HIV infections in Asia, but programs targeting women often lack coordination, said Rao. Further, the programs typically exclude men, giving the false impression that "male behavior is inevitable and predetermined," and that only women can effect change, she said.

"Human rights deficits and abuses fuel the epidemic" to such an extent that the centrality of human rights to fighting HIV/AIDS is a "widely accepted premise," said Kyung-wha Kang, UN deputy high commissioner for human rights.

In an online survey commissioned this year by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, 32 percent of Asian MSM reported having experienced rape, arrest, blackmail, and violence from police and other authorities because of their sexual orientation. Few MSM reported receiving HIV prevention information from school or government sources, relying instead on media and non-governmental groups.

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