Report - Sida Studi

Thursday 29 September 2005
4: Opening session
dialogue between young people and religious leaders. See
appendix 4 for some extracts from the video presentation.
4.3 Oral presentations
4.31 Epidemiology, Migrants and HIV/AIDS, Dr Julia Del
Amo, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche
Dr Julia Del Amo gave the meeting an overview of the
epidemiological data relating to HIV/AIDS and migrancy.
She highlighted progress in reporting and recording of
infections as well as some remaining problems with these
data.
Dr Del Amo began by describing the important role
played by health surveillance data in the development of
public health activity. She noted the greater visibility of
data relating to HIV/AIDS and migrancy in recent years
and the clear evidence that this put into the public arena
about the vulnerability of migrant people. She described
some of the issues associated with bringing data of this
kind into the public arena, noting that while it had the
potential benefit of focusing public health activity on
groups with particular needs and vulnerabilities it also
generated the potential for stigmatisation of migrant people.
She noted the need, in particular, to work with the
media. These have a powerful influence on public perceptions
of the links between migrancy and public health in
the context of wider concerns about immigration, work
and social welfare provision.
Presenting longitudinal data from Western, Central and
Eastern Europe, Dr Del Amo demonstrated the explosive
spread of injecting drug use-related HIV in Eastern
Europe and noted how easily this might have been prevented
by interventions. Looking at AIDS surveillance,
she demonstrated the trends towards decreasing AIDS
cases in Western Europe with the wider availability of
antiretroviral treatment.
Looking specifically at data on the origin of new HIV
infections, she illustrated the rise in heterosexual infections
acquired abroad, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, and
the evidence that the burden of new infections is largely
borne by younger people. While she warned that there
are some problems with achieving total consistency when
it comes to extracting exactly comparable data on HIV
among migrant young people, Dr Del Amo pointed out
that in their current state data suggest that differentials in
rates of infection with HIV and conversion to AIDS are
associated with access to treatment and care.
She noted that one effect of exploring epidemiological
data in relation to ethnicity and migrancy seemed
to be to show that highly active antiretroviral therapy
(HAART) is making inequality in HIV care more visible
in countries with free access to treatment and care.
Dr Del Amo concluded with a call for action to achieving
the following:
• Development of scientifically valid and culturally appropriate
definitions of ethnicity and migrancy;
• Empowerment of communities to interpret and use data
relating to HIV/AIDS and migrancy, and hence to influence
the direction of funding;
• Working with the media to avoid stigmatisation.
4.32 Pre-meeting report, Mr Julian Hows,
Global Network of PLWHA
Mr Julian Hows presented some headlines from the
pre-meeting for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).
He noted that PLWHA should be allowed to be visible
in society in order to be able to shoulder responsibilities
for their health and the health of others. Achieving
this visibility is entirely dependent on a commitment to
meet their basic human rights to feel safe and socially
included. Without this they have no position from which
to embrace responsibilities for themselves and others.
Mr Hows went on to note that there had been many
meetings which had produced many words and little
action. Meantime that situation for migrant PLWHA was
deteriorating, with tighter rules of immigration emerging
across Europe and more barriers to access to treatment
and care. He stressed that what was needed was commitment
to adopting a rights-based approach so that rather
than pleading for support, treatment and care on the
basis of vulnerability, PLWHA demanded what was theirs
by right.
Mr Hows noted that migrant PLWHA were doubly disadvantaged
because all too often refugee organisations,
including organisations arising from their own communities,
tend to focus on their needs as refugees rather than
identifying them as PLWHA, and HIV organisations tend
to focus on their needs as PLWHA rather than as refugees
and migrants.
He concluded by asking for the following four things
from the meeting:
• Real partnership to create enabling environments that
make a real difference;
• That participants consider if they are one of these partner
organisations;
• That it accept the contribution of the pre-meeting into
its workshops and other sessions;
• That people accept the opportunity to form a virtual
HIV and migrancy network.
The presentation closed with a dramatic and emotional
climax when, at the invitation of Mr Hows, several people
began the process of challenging stigmatisation and
exclusion by identifying themselves as PLWHA.
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