Thousands demonstrate for human rights at the Vienna AIDS Congress, because marginalisation exacerbates the HIV epidemic. The situation of gays is catastrophic in many countries. This was the topic of a pre-conference with the motto: "Be heard!"
Human rights - a big word. Yesterday, the guiding theme of the 18th International AIDS Conference became concrete. Thousands of people marched through Vienna's city centre in a "March for Human Rights".
"It was an exuberant protest march and an unmistakable sign of solidarity from and with people with HIV," writes Werner Bock, blogger for Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe, in his daily Vienna report. The highlight of the evening was the performance by Annie Lennox. The singer has been an HIV/Aids activist for many years - recently became a UN ambassador.
The demonstration put a powerful exclamation mark behind the conference motto "Rights here, right now". Discrimination and stigmatisation prevent people at risk of HIV from receiving information about the risks of infection and from being able to receive treatment (see also yesterday's blog post).
"At the final rally, ALL groups threatened and affected by HIV were finally included in detail," says Matthias Kuske, Campaign Manager of ICH WEISS WAS ICH TU, who is taking part in Vienna. "That was very, very impressive!"
And necessary: In many countries, for example, it is still far from recognised that the only way to prevent infections during sex between men is to stop excluding men.
For Dirk Sander, the MSM spokesperson for Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe, this problem is still not sufficiently addressed at the 18th International AIDS Conference:
"In many African countries, for example, there is a massive HIV epidemic among MSM. The men suffer severe discrimination, including serious violence and murder. They are not recognised as gay men in the healthcare system and are therefore not treated and informed according to their needs. Hardly anyone talks about such problems here."
Yesterday, Dirk Sander spoke to a doctor from Ukraine at the Vienna conference. He told him that he treats many gay men in his hospital who are suffering from the consequences of Aids. Officially, however, they were all infected through intravenous drug use.
In other words, the spread of HIV among gay men is underestimated in many countries because homosexuality is not allowed to be talked about. This creates a breeding ground for further infections.
"Be heard!" was therefore the motto of a pre-conference last Saturday, which also took place in Vienna. The focus here was exclusively on men who have sex with men. "Be heard!" can be translated as either "Be heard!" or "Make yourself heard!". The focus was on the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans people (LGBT).
One important demand is that enough money should be made available for prevention among MSM. Although they are currently a very heavily affected group in many countries, they only receive a fraction of the global funding.
And this - incidentally - despite the fact that it is now clear that where prevention is successful among gay men, the number of infections in the general population also falls.
(howi)
