Criminalising HIV transmission will not help halt the spread of HIV – instead it will stop people from getting tested and increase the risk of further transmissions.
According to UNAIDS, more than 60 countries around the world have laws which criminalise HIV transmission, including Austria, Denmark and the USA. Rather than preventing HIV, these laws make people afraid to get tested, because a person can only be prosecuted once they know their status. People who do not get tested regularly have a higher chance of infecting others, as they do not know their HIV status.
If a person is unknowingly living with HIV, and therefore not being treated, they can also have higher levels of the virus in their blood. This means their HIV infection is not controlled and they can infect many people.
Facts about HIV status
Lawmakers should take into account the following ways of describing a person’s HIV status:
- HIV-positive, undetectable means the level of HIV in a person’s blood is suppressed below the threshold which can be detected by current tests, as a result of regular antiretroviral medication. These people have a very limited chance of infecting their sexual partners.
- HIV-negative means that there is no HIV virus in a person’s blood. However, this person should still be tested regularly and always practice safe sex.
- HIV-positive with unknown viral load means the person is HIV positive but is not taking regular antiretroviral medication. These people can have high amount of HIV in their blood and can easily infect their sexual partners.
- Unknown HIV status means the person doesn’t know their HIV status.
By criminalizing HIV, governments are providing false hope to people who do not know their HIV status and HIV negative people. They lead people to wrongly believe they are safe as long as they don’t get tested. They also discourage people living with HIV from disclosing their status and sharing their experiences, by presenting them as trouble-makers.
At the same time, in countries such as Uganda, these laws make people living with HIV feel marginalized and like second class citizens. They are being assaulted, killed, discriminated against and their dignity is being undermined.
Sterling controversy
A recent story in the international media highlights the fact that discriminatory and incorrect beliefs about people living with HIV persist around the world.
Donald Sterling, the multi-billionaire owner of American basketball team LA Clippers, made derogatory remarks about basketball legend Magic Johnson in an interview with CNN on 12 May. Sterling said Johnson had AIDS, depicted him as promiscuous and that “he should be ashamed of himself”. He also said Johnson was a poor role model for children.
Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991 but his infection has not led to AIDS. The Magic Johnson Foundation has raised millions of dollars for awareness and treatment of HIV and AIDS.
Sterling’s public outburst portrayed people living with HIV as promiscuous and behaving badly. He has been widely condemned in America, forced to sell the Clippers and received a lifetime ban from the National Basketball Association as a result of these and other racist comments.
Ignorance and discrimination
This story, and the ignorance it reveals, recalls times in Africa when HIV was thought to be a result of witch doctors’ activities, causing people to burn alive those suspected of having HIV. Some religious leaders also incorrectly claimed that HIV was a punishment from God to people who committed adultery, leading to discrimination within churches.
There is no evidence that criminal laws specific to HIV transmission make any significant impact on the spread of the HIV epidemic. Therefore, priority must be given to fight against HIV and AIDS related stigma and discrimination, to protecting people living with HIV and to increasing access to comprehensive and evidence-informed prevention methods.
The real problem of the world is not people living with HIV, but HIV itself. Let’s learn about it, and how to prevent it, instead of attacking people. Let’s promote regular HIV testing and safe sex practice for everybody. These are more efficient weapons in the response to HIV than laws which turn people who are living with the virus into criminals. These only encourage hate, stigma and discrimination.
Read about HIV and the post 2015 development agenda
