Don't forget it's 'World' AIDS Day

01 December 2014

As a focus of fear and stigma, Ebola has replaced AIDS in Western consciousness. So World Aids Day offers an occasion for reflection on the human lives affected by HIV, on what needs to be done to address the spread of HIV in Australia and also on the devastation caused by AIDS elsewhere.

When its threat and extent were first recognised, AIDS was difficult to address because it carried a double stigma. It was a mysterious, lethal disease that caused great suffering and noticeable physical symptoms, and led to the death of many who suffered from it. There was no cure for it. It carried the stigma associated with fear.

The spread of AIDS was also associated with unprotected sex between men and sharing injecting needles, and so carried the cultural and religious taboos associated with that conduct. It carried the stigma associated with sexuality and addiction. Stigma makes for silence, because to reveal infection or sexual orientation is likely to bring exclusion and discrimination. Silence makes for ignorance as no one talks about the reality of the disease and its transmission. Ignorance contributes to the spread of the disease among vulnerable people.

In Australia, AIDS receded in public consciousness as more effective antiretroviral medicines were developed and became more widely available, so preventing HIV from developing into AIDS. Public education about the causes and the ways of preventing the disease were also effective, particularly when the education was undertaken by community groups whose members were more liable to infection. The stigma associated with fear and with sexuality was challenged and discrimination diminished. Stories of men caring heroically for their AIDS infected partners became more familiar to the public.

In Australia the goal of the Day is to reach a point where there are no new HIV infections, no discrimination and no AIDS related deaths. That seems theoretically attainable. But the reality is that the number of people diagnosed of HIV have increased over recent years. So the need for more public awareness and education among vulnerable groups remains. Stigma, too, which is notoriously difficult to overcome, needs to continue to be addressed so that no one will be reluctant to seek diagnosis and treatment of the HIV virus.

But World Aids Day encourages us also to think beyond Australia. Africa remains the continent most afflicted by AIDS. Even there the number of HIV cases diagnosed has declined in recent years, but the suffering of

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Don't forget it's 'World' AIDS Day

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