Social and legal issues

Social and legal issues features

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  Of guidelines, targets and resources: the documents that defined the 2014 International AIDS Conference

  If there was a phrase that defined the 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014), one that surfaced in every few presentations and kept turning up in documents,...

  From:  News

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  Hurdles to housing – How new social housing and benefit rules may affect people with HIV

  Having somewhere safe, secure and comfortable to live is something we all want, and is an important part of looking after our physical and emotional health. But...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Finances for the over-50s

  Guest writer Emma Lunn investigates some of the financial options for people approaching retirement age....

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  What kind of prevention do gay men need?

  A number of presentations at the 19th International AIDS Conference explored the 'hyperepidemic' of HIV amongst men who have sex with men, and especially black MSM. A paper...

  From:  News

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  Rest assured – life insurance for people with HIV

  Relatively few people with HIV in the UK take out life insurance, but is that actually because it isn’t available to them? Gus Cairns investigates. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Getting tough on criminalisation

  “Nothing short of barbaric.” This was the comment of a BBC presenter, confronted with the number and sheer arbitrary injustice of criminal convictions of people accused of transmitting...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Barriers to care: immigration removal centres and HIV

  Evidence has shown that a series of failings in immigration removal centres (IRCs) has compromised the continuity of care for people with HIV. Guest writer Daniel Lombard investigates. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Is there life after death for HIV social care?

  HIV specialist social care is in danger of vanishing altogether as a facet of social work in England. Despite improvements in health, changes in the make-up and...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  What's happening to benefits?

  At least 40% of people with HIV are jobless,1,2 especially those who are long-term diagnosed. Most of them will be on Incapacity Benefit or other state-provided financial assistance...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  The beginning of change: the 2010 CHIVA summer camp

  Following on from our issue looking at young people, in October, guest writer Bakita Kasadha talks to the organisers and participants in the UK’s summer camp for teenagers...

  From:  HIV treatment update

Social and legal issues in your own words

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  Surviving isolation and abuse

  My official diagnosis was in 1989. I then took another test in 1990 in the UK to confirm the legitimacy of it. At first, I...

  From: In your own words

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  The sex police

  I met Amy through a friend – a friend who knew my HIV status. We got on really well and she asked if I wanted...

  From: In your own words

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  Change of direction

  I moved to Manchester with my partner to start a course in nursing with the intention of becoming a midwife. Initially everything was peachy. But...

  From: In your own words

Social and legal issues news from aidsmap

• HIV non-disclosure laws perpetuate social injustices against women in Canada

  People living with HIV in Canada can be charged with aggravated sexual assault and be registered as sexual offenders if they do not disclose their HIV status, but many HIV-positive women have little knowledge of this law, according to ...

  05 February 2019 | Krishen Samuel

• Half of Malaysian doctors admit to some discrimination against patients with HIV

  Just over half of physicians at two of Malaysia’s leading medical universities expressed some intention to discriminate against patients with HIV in a survey. Dr Tee Ying Chew of the University of Malaya and colleagues published the results in ...

  16 January 2019 | Roger Pebody

• Stigma remains a substantial barrier in accessing HIV care in rural East Africa

  A set of varied barriers adversely impact positive outcomes at different stages in the HIV care cascade in the rural East African context, according to a qualitative study recently published in PLOS ONE by James Ayieko and fellow researchers. ...

  14 September 2018 | Krishen Samuel

• Unstable housing associated with low CD4 cell count and detectable viral load for HIV-positive women in US

  Unstable housing is associated with an increased risk of a detectable viral load and low CD4 cell count among HIV-positive women, according to US research published in Social Science & Medicine. Women with unstable housing were around 50% more likely ...

  06 September 2018 | Michael Carter

• Loneliness and isolation top list of unmet social needs among people living with HIV in the UK

  A survey of a large, representative sample of people attending HIV clinics in England has identified satisfaction with HIV-related services, but considerable unmet need for social and welfare services, in particular support to alleviate loneliness and isolation. Meaghan ...

  20 April 2018 | Roger Pebody

• Healthcare workers living with HIV have different motivations for disclosing or concealing their HIV status

  Nurses and other healthcare workers who are living with HIV have mixed reactions when they mention their HIV status to colleagues, according to a small Dutch study reported in the November/December issue of the Journal of the Association of ...

  10 November 2017 | Roger Pebody

• People with HIV still expect a lower quality of life than their negative peers, European survey finds

  A study commissioned by the drug company Gilead Sciences and conducted in five European countries has found that, compared with their HIV-negative peers, people with HIV still expect to die sooner and think they are less likely to ...

  27 October 2017 | Gus Cairns

• Changes in viral suppression over time reveal disparities in HIV care in the United States

  Sustained viral suppression over the course of a year may be a better measure than the most recent viral load test result when it comes to understanding access to and engagement in HIV care, according to a study ...

  15 February 2017 | Liz Highleyman

• Many older people living with HIV in the UK worried about poverty, loneliness and social care

  People over the age of 50 now represent one third of all people living with HIV, but the social care, healthcare and welfare systems aren’t ready for this growing cohort, according to research published by the Terrence Higgins Trust ...

  19 January 2017 | Roger Pebody

• Educational attainment associated with health outcomes after starting HIV therapy

  People with HIV who have lower educational attainment have poorer outcomes after starting combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), according to data from a large European cohort collaboration published in the online edition of AIDS. Rates of mortality and AIDS decreased ...

  11 October 2016 | Michael Carter

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Social and legal issues news selected from other sources

• The Slow Rollout Of PrEP Is Denying Gay Men Their Right To Human Dignity

  Gay men are already a socially marginalised and stigmatised group – their health can no longer continue to be sacrificed, National AIDS Trust's Yused Azad writes

  24 June 2019 | Huffington Post

• Botswana scraps gay sex laws in big victory for LGBTQ rights in Africa

  Botswana's High Court has overturned a colonial-era law criminalizing consensual same-sex relations in a landmark victory for Africa's LGBTQ movements. The ruling comes just a month after Kenya's high court upheld its laws criminalizing homosexuality.

  11 June 2019 | CNN

• US: Planning for Retirement While Living With HIV

  Whether you're on public assistance or you're more well off, there are things you can do to plan for a secure future.

  03 June 2019 | The Body

• People Before Politics: 4 Key Points in HR19’s Opening Ceremony

  The Harm Reduction International Conference 2019 (HR19) has begun in Porto, with several influential speakers delivering inspiring and poignant remarks at the opening ceremony. HR19 comes at a crucial moment in the development of drug policies across the globe. Many countries find themselves at a drug policy crossroads; do they pursue health and human rights-oriented approaches that reduce potential drug harms, or maintain policies of criminalisation and repression that have long-characterised the global drug war?

  29 April 2019 | Talking Drugs

• Challenging My Own Bigotry

  An HIV-negative gay man confronts his history with men living with the virus.

  25 April 2019 | Poz

• Employers’ unlawful vetting of job applicant health conditions and disabilities persists, says NAT

  Today marks nine years since the Equality Act was passed, yet social care providers across London have been found to be openly breaking rules it introduced, designed to prevent discrimination in employment. A report published today by NAT (National AIDS Trust) shows continued use of unlawful pre-employment health questions amongst these employers.

  08 April 2019 | National AIDS Trust

• New UN guidelines to mainstream human rights in the global drugs debate

  In early March, the Chief Executives Board of the United Nations, representing 31 UN agencies – including the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime – adopted a common position on drug policy. Among the actions agreed is was a commitment to “support the development and implementation of policies that put people, health and human rights at the centre … and to promote a rebalancing of drug policies and interventions towards public health approaches”.

  19 March 2019 | The Conversation

• Athens Checkpoint HIV test centre target of arson attack

  The culprits tore down the LGBTQ rainbow flag on the balcony, from which they gained access to the offices and set the fire with gasoline.

  13 March 2019 | ToBHMA

• Travel bans reveal state of HIV discrimination

  As World Aids Day marks its 30th anniversary, travel restrictions for people living with HIV remain common around the world, including bans on entry, denial of work and residence permits, and even deportations.

  29 November 2018 | Graphic News

• Jackie Morton – Disclosure? No exposure!

  Sharing your HIV status ought to be a personal choice in every case and our decision not to disclose our status to our two sons survived for nine years until my admission to hospital on 5 November 2018 following a heart attack.

  22 November 2018 | EATG

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