From: hrcoord@igc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: IPS: Abuse of AIDS Victims
Date: 26 Jul 92 18:34:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700270:000:5224
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Jul 26 11:34:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: IPS: Abuse of AIDS Victims

/* Written 12:12 am  Jul 26, 1992 by newsdesk in
cdp:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all
rights reserved.  Permission to re- print within 7 days of
original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: HEALTH: Cuba and Thailand abusing AIDS victims, officials
charge

an inter press service feature

by guido de bruin

amsterdam, july 23 (ips) -- in cuba, they are put in a sanatorium
until they die, while there are reports that in burma some have
been put before a firing squad. they are not criminals, they are
victims of aids.

the cuban example was repeatedly cited thursday during the fourth
day of discussion at the eighth international conference on aids.

according to ronald bayer of the u.s. columbia university school
of public health, the cuban government has ''the most repressive
aids strategy in the world'', isolating hiv infected citizens in a
sanatorium just outside havana.

although probably effective in controlling the aids epidemic on
the island, bayer said that the price paid by the victims in terms
of loss of freedom is too high, and that the spread of the disease
might better have been prevented through a good education policy.

vitit muntarbhorn of the chulalongkorn university in thailand
strongly criticised his government for similarly repressive
policies.

he charged that the thailand government was forcing hiv-infected
burmese women -- lured into prostitution in thailand -- to return
to burma, where in some cases they have reportedly been executed
by fire squads or given cyanide injections.

apart from these extreme cases, muntarbhorn said that
''discrimination is becoming more and more widespread''.

hiv-infected people, he said, are often discriminated against when
seeking employment, housing or education. ''at times, teachers and
students are prevented from entering school due to the fact that
they are persons with hiv.

''the mandatory testing of potential employees by various
companies may result in discrimination in the pre-employment
phase, while current employees found to be hiv positive are at
times unlawfully dismissed,'' muntarbhorn added.

muntarbhorn further charged that in thailand the right to privacy
is often threatened as employers exert pressure on medical
personnel to find out the results of hiv tests. (more/ips)

health: cuba and thailand abusing aids victims, officials
charge(2-e)

health: cuba (2)

''as there are no anti-discrimination laws in thailand, it is very
difficult to sue employers who discriminate,'' he added, calling
for ''consolidated international pressure'' to counter human
rights violations faced by hiv-infected people worldwide.

moreover muntarbhorn said that even information on the disease is
not readily accessible in thailand. ''the right to education and
access to information is not sufficiently realised due to
inadequate dissemination of information in certain areas and among
certain socio-economic groups.''

mark vanlandingham of the u.s. ''aidstech'' research centre, lent
support to this view. having conducted research on sexual risk
taking among male students, soldiers and labourers in thailand, he
found that the students knew more about the disease than the other
two groups.

according to vanlandingham many soldiers and labourers did not
even know that aids is incurable or thought that they could tell
whether a prostitute has aids by looking at her.

in thailand, around 400,000 people are infected with hiv, mostly
through heterosexual transmission between prostitutes and their
clients.

the findings show condom use is infrequent -- especially among the
labourers and soldiers -- and called for information campaigns
targeted to men from the lower socio-economic bracket.

as far as misconceptions about how the infection is passed from
person to person is concerned, zambia has also had its problems,
said nicholas phiri of the zambian ministry of health.

in a study conducted in one zambian village, phiri said that he
and another ministry official had great difficulty convincing the
villagers that aids was not associated with intercourse with women
who had an abortion.

according to phiri, it was only after the village headman and the
priest supported their argument that the villagers accepted the
new information. ''now condoms are accepted by the villagers, aids
patients are no longer stigmatised, and more people are discussing
aids,'' he said.

but even with the new knowledge, another study revealed that
zimbabweans were not taking care.

the study shows that although 80 percent of the respondents from
targeted risk groups -- ranging from prostitutes to truckers and
fishermen -- knew that aids was incurable, and 90 percent knew it
was sexually transmitted, condoms were still seldom used.

the author of the study, danuta kasprzyk of the u.s. battelle
seattle research centre, said that ''myths'' still exist alongside
the new found knowledge which prevent people from changing their
sexual behaviour.

according to kasprzyk, another often overlooked reason for
infrequent condom use is that the main purpose of sex in zimbabwe
is procreation. (end/ips/hm-hr/gdb/cpg/92)