Aids stigma must end

Strong calls in the past few weeks by local experts and international groups to end the ongoing ignorance, misinformation and discrimination of HIV and Aids that still persists in the Arab world, is welcome news.

In a region that is forging ahead with developing international levels of healthcare, it is incongruous that large swathes of the public still believe you can contract the infection by kissing and sneezing. And that it only affects those that indulge in irresponsible behaviours.

As out of step are the laws that still make the infection a deportable offence for expatriates – an act that only goes to reaffirm widely held misconceptions that it is a highly contagious and shameful disease.

But it seems it’s not just the public and ministers that have to re-educate and re-evaluate their views on a disease that with modern day medicines, can be managed like any other chronic illness.

Healthcare professionals must take a long hard look at their attitudes as well, if disturbing reports from a three-day workshop on HIV and Aids, run by the United Nations Development Programme in Abu Dhabi last month, are to be believed.

The conference was told that a large number of medical professionals in Dubai still believe you can get HIV from shaking hands. If this is true, then the region’s healthcare authorities and providers have an even bigger public health challenge on their hands.

If doctors and nurses are not educated in preventing, detecting, screening, managing, contact tracing and counselling for the condition, then how will the tide ever be turned on reducing death rates? Because, despite what people in the Middle East may think, the region is not immune to the disease.

Statistics presented at the same Abu Dhabi workshop show that there were 740,000 HIV patients in Western and Central Europe in 2006, compared with just 460,000 in the Arab world. However, 26,000 people in the Arab world died from the disease: more than double the 12,000 deaths seen in Europe. One of the main reasons for this is that just 5% of the Arab world’s patients seek treatment compared with 26% in Europe.

Regional governments are making moves to tackle the issue by providing free antiretroviral drugs, guidance and counseling to nationals. But unless people are persuaded to come forward with early symptoms then these will only amount to good-will gestures, and mortality rates will continue to rise.

It is the social stigma around HIV infection that needs to be addressed, and that will require responsible action from the government down to individuals. But especially within healthcare circles, where people have an obligation to be fully aware of the scientific facts.

Joanna Hartley is the editor of Medical Times Middle East.

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