Government accused of inaction on HIV/AIDS
The National AIDS Trust (NAT) has accused the Government of failing to take action to prevent the “increasing problem” of HIV/AIDS in the UK.
It says that the Government has “broken” international promises to tackle HIV/AIDS at home and sexual health has been “deprioritised” in the NHS.
Further, NAT claims that anti-discrimination laws do not adequately protect those affected by HIV/AIDS and that the Government has failed to publish an action plan on reducing stigma towards those infected with HIV/AIDS.
The Health Protection Agency estimates that there are 50,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the UK and there were an estimated 7000 new cases last year. In July the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, said that more needed to be done to tackle the “hidden” problem and ensure that HIV testing was more widely available an individuals receive early testing.
Today, the NAT echoed these concerns and warned that unless the Government acts quickly “HIV rates will continue to rise, resulting in thousands of new infections every year.”
Under the 2001 UNGASS Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS, UN members made a pledge to tackle HIV/AIDS within their own countries. As the UK has not submitted an update report for the UN on its compliance with the agreed targets, NAT decided to produce its own report.
It claims that there are serious shortfalls in the UK’s performance, “including their failure to establish national HIV prevention targets and confront HIV-related stigma and discrimination.”
Deborah Jack, chief executive of NAT said: “The Government has broken its promises to the international community and failed to set an example of leadership on HIV within the UK. There were 7000 new cases of HIV in the UK last year and we cannot afford to wait until thousands more people are infected before the Government decides to act.”
She urged the Government to introduce a cross departmental HIV/AIDS strategy, implement a national policy for prisons and review criminal law relating to reckless transmission of HIV/AIDS.
