Stigma Leading to Rise in Hiv Rates, Says Red Cross

HIV infection rates are rising around the globe because many governments do not want to help high risk groups such as drug users, prostitutes and gay men, the International Red Cross said today.

Discrimination against these groups and the stigma associated with HIV and Aids has led to politicians in many regions, particularly Asia and Latin America, being unwilling to fund programs to prevent the spread of the disease, the world's largest humanitarian agency said.

The World Disasters report, published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said drug users, prostitutes and gay men lived on the fringes of society in many countries and, especially in the developing world, "often face stigma, criminalization and little, if any, access to prevention and treatment services".

The report noted that of the 9.7 million people worldwide who need antiretroviral medication to treat HIV, an estimated 6.7 million people were still unable to get the drugs.

It called on governments to tackle HIV discrimination, noting that millions of infections could have been prevented had more help been targeted at stigmatized high risk groups.

"The HIV and Aids epidemic is a disaster whose scale and extent could have been prevented," said Lindsay Knight, editor of the report.

"Ignorance, stigma, political inaction, indifference and denial all contributed to millions of deaths."

Around 2.5 million people ? 7,000 a day - contracted HIV last year, and more than 33 million people are estimated to be living with the disease, the report said.

It also found that people with HIV were often those hardest hit by natural disasters and war because they were left unable to access medical care.

The situation was worst in southern Africa where at least one in 10 adults are now living with HIV, with some countries predicted to risk becoming subsistence economies within three or four generations.

David Andrews, chairman of the Irish Red Cross, said: "HIV/Aids is the disaster that keeps on killing. Day after day, families are destroyed, economies wiped out and communities crushed as economies disintegrate, parents die and children are born with the disease.

"We must grasp the enormity of a disaster that has already killed 25 million - more than a hundred times the number of people killed by the tsunami, our biggest single natural disaster in living memory."