Editorial - Australia, stigma and the International AIDS Conference

I leave this week to attend the conference of the International AIDS Society (IAS) in Sydney, Australia. The conference is one of the most important HIV meetings of the year that will attract leading HIV doctors, scientists and researchers from around the world.

Because important new research is presented to the International AIDS Conference, it usually attracts a lot of media attention and is usually a focus for campaigns to raise general awareness about HIV, and to challenge the stigma that all too often surrounds the infection.

Sydney has proved to be an interesting choice for this year’s conference. Australia’s response to HIV has often been highlighted as a model that other countries should try and emulate. It introduced a national HIV plan in the early days of the epidemic that has been credited with helping to keep infection rates low. What’s more, real efforts were made to challenge prejudices and misinformation about HIV and to protect the civil rights of HIV-positive individuals.

But all this appears to be changing. The Australian government is considering banning people with HIV from migrating to the country, and some recent prosecutions for the sexual transmission of HIV have led to proposals for the creation of a national genetic database of HIV so transmission of the virus can be tracked.

Worryingly, it seems that the moves to impose tighter restrictions on entry for people with HIV to Australia came about due to the misunderstanding, or deliberate misuse, of statistics.

Earlier this year, figures from the Australian state of Victoria showed a significant increase in HIV prevalence, but nearly all the new cases of HIV in the state were due to internal migration. However, Prime Minister, John Howard – who is popularly seen as being tough on immigration – used the figures to announce his support for tougher restrictions on entry to Australia for people with HIV who are seeking long term residence.

He either confused internal migration and immigration, or he deliberately twisted the statistics to bolster his anti-immigration credentials ahead of this year’s Australian general election.

Moves to create a national database to genetically track HIV transmissions have also raised eyebrows as it would be of little value as a surveillance tool. A man was recently acquitted for the reckless transmission of HIV in the UK after an expert virologist showed that genetic evidence cannot prove that person A infected person B.

The IAS selects the venues for its conferences with great care but the choice of Sydney for this year’s gathering has ended up being controversial. It’s not the first time that a country’s entry policy for people with HIV has proved contentious for an international AIDS conference. In 1992, the IAS moved the venue for the World AIDS Conference from Boston to Amsterdam in protest at the USA’s near-total ban on entry for people with HIV and there was some speculation that recent developments in Sydney might lead to a last-minute change of venue or even the cancellation of this year’s event.

But unlike the US, Australia, for the time being at least, does not deny short-term entry for people with HIV who have tourist or business visas.

This might have been crucial in the decision of the IAS to go ahead with the Sydney conference. The IAS wants to use the meeting of HIV experts from around the world as an opportunity to highlight the discriminatory moves being proposed by the current Australian government. It’s worth taking note of what executive director of the IAS, Craig McClure had to say on the issue:

“We call on the international community to join us in Sydney for the conference...our collective voice and presence will add pressure on the Australian government not to implement these proposed restrictions and will show our solidarity against the restriction of movement of people living with HIV in Australia and other places around the world.”

There will be daily news reports from the conference on aidsmap.com and all subscribers to HIV Weekly will be sent a daily email bulletin summarising and contextualising the latest developments.

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