AI Chat Search Browse Media On This Day Map Quotations Timeline Research Free Datasets Remembered About Contact

UNAIDS homophobic and arrogant says NZAF

Fri 27 Sep 2013 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback

Dr Luis Loures of UNAIDS International organisations such as the United Nations AIDS agency are homophobic and arrogant in their disregard for men who have sex with men, according to the head of the NZ AIDS Foundation. On Monday, the UN agency released the 2013 global HIV/AIDS report, which showed that new HIV infections among adults and adolescents fell by 50 percent or more in 26 countries between 2001 and 2012. Speaking at today's national HIV Treatments Update, convened by Body Positive and Positive Women, Robinson was scornful of the claim, made by the Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, Dr Luis Loures, that the global HIV epidemic could therefore be over by 2030, without mentioning that the epidemic amongst gay men world-wide continues to rise. Although Loures believes aggressive treatment of a sufficient proportion people's HIV infections could lower the incidence of new infections leading to the fading out of the world-wide HIV epidemic, Robinson says there is no evidence that this will actually work, particularly for men who have sex with men. He points out that while the heterosexual epidemics around the world are trending down, infection rates amongst men who have sex with men are bucking that trend and increasing. In New Zealand and similar western nations HIV is prevalent amongst gay and bi men who constitute 80% of those living with HIV in this country. Loures said that if vulnerable groups like sex workers, men who have sex with men and intravenous drug users were not reached out to in all parts of the world then the virus would continue to be a problem. - See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/unaids-official-predicts-hiv-epidemic-could-be-over-2030230913#sthash.kQxubyBz.dpufLoures did say this week that if men who have sex with men are not reached out to there would continue to be an HIV problem. But Robinson believes that does not go far enough and that international HIV/AIDS authorities have not paid sufficient attention to the epidemic amongst gay and bi men. He points out that less than 17% of the abstracts accepted for the 2011 and 2012 International AIDS Conferences dealt with HIV amongst men who have sex with men. He accuses UNAIDS, which, like its parent body the United Nations, must often bow to the dictates of its member nations, of "institutional homophobia." "Is that because gay and bisexual men are less human than anybody else? Surely not." He says UN nations as long ago as 1978 signed up to everybody having access to the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health. Robinson first publicly crossed swords with UNAIDS in April last year when he challenged visiting UNAIDS Director Michel Sidibe who had also predicted that drug treatment of HIV was sufficiently successful in suppressing individuals' infections to lead to the disappearance of the epidemic. Robinson says the only information UNAIDS quotes to back up its predictions is based on research amongst straight people and even then the results are not convincing.    

Credit: Jay Bennie

First published: Friday, 27th September 2013 - 10:11pm

Rights Information

This page displays a version of a GayNZ.com article that was automatically harvested before the website closed. All of the formatting and images have been removed and some text content may not have been fully captured correctly. The article is provided here for personal research and review and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of PrideNZ.com. If you have queries or concerns about this article please email us