Pubdate: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2006 The Toronto Star Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456 Author: Amelaine Carey Note: Elaine Carey is a member of the Star's editorial board. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) AIDS FOCUS WILL WANE QUICKLY Only a handful of protestors greeted former U.S. president Bill Clinton when he spoke earlier this week at the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto. They quietly raised white lab coats on poles to protest the lack of nurses to treat AIDS victims in the developing world. Clinton laughed and told them he was in total agreement. Protestors have been part of every international AIDS conference. But their tactics and their style have changed dramatically since the first conference was held in Atlanta in 1985. Back then, there were no known treatments for the mysterious disease, only a growing fear and demands for more compulsory testing. By 1987, hundreds of members of ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), comprised largely of gay men, demonstrated at the Washington conference to protest calls for even more widespread HIV testing while promising treatments were being held up in lengthy clinical trials. They were arrested by police wearing bright yellow rubber gloves to supposedly protect themselves. The pictures were shown around the world, reinforcing the public's fear and ignorance. By 1990, the demonstrations had grown even bigger as activists protested the U.S. policy of banning HIV-infected individuals from immigrating or even travelling to the U.S. Activism may have died down as an art form, but some things have not changed very much. That U.S. ban on allowing HIV-infected people to immigrate is still in effect. No international AIDS conference has been held in the country since 1990 in protest against the ban. The 1993 conference highlighted the growing tensions between resource-poor countries and the developed world, and pharmaceutical companies' reluctance to give up their patent control of life-saving drugs. But those tensions still persist and are actually becoming worse. As new combination therapies became available in the mid-'90s that extended the lives of people with HIV/AIDS, the disease became less of an issue primarily for gay men in the developed world. Instead, the focus shifted to the unfolding devastation caused by the disease in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, where those drugs are still largely unavailable. The 2000 AIDS conference in Durban, South Africa, marked the first time the conference was hosted by an African country. The theme, "Break the Silence," underscored how fear, stigma and denial about HIV/AIDS continued to hinder prevention and care efforts and highlighted the growing rate of infection among women. Six years later in Toronto, those same stigmas, fears, prejudices and denials haunt the current AIDS conference. U.S. funds for AIDS decree that 30 per cent of the money must go to abstinence programs, a policy that has been proven not to work on its own. "When you have people pontificating about abstinence, I don't think they know what too many women in the world are up against," Clinton said. The U.S. also requires that all countries receiving its AIDS funds and wanting to use the money to treat sex workers must declare their opposition to prostitution publicly, even though it is the only way women in many parts of the world survive financially. At the same time, needle exchange programs, which have been proven to save lives and reduce the risk of HIV infection, are still controversial. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he does not want the only Canadian program now in existence, located in Vancouver, to have its legal exemption renewed when it expires in September. Yet one in 10 new cases of HIV and 30 per cent of all new cases outside Africa are caused by sharing needles. Clearly there is ongoing stubbornness surrounding AIDS. Some 90 per cent of people with HIV still refuse to be tested; men in many countries still refuse to wear condoms and women are ostracized for getting the disease because of it. But there is cause for hope. New treatments lie on the horizon, more drugs are getting to the Third World, more money is flowing. The international AIDS conference in Toronto is "a wonderful advocacy opportunity, a chance for the world to focus on the international AIDS epidemic," said Helene Gayle, its co-chair and president of CARE. But too often that focus stops as quickly as it began when the conference ends and the western world moves on to other issues. In the early days of these international conferences, AIDS was a focus year-round because it was killing people we knew. Now, it is a once-every-two-years event, quickly put out of mind by most of us at the end of the week. Maybe a few more protests would help change that.