Asia: Prescription for HIV/AIDS pandemic - social justice

The prescription that thousands of participants effectively issued at a just- ended AIDS conference here was clear: It is time to fight social and political inequities so that the medical gains in curbing HIV and AIDS can work with maximum efficacy. The recognition that it is time to look far beyond the medical and scientific dimensions of the region's battle against HIV and AIDS is the theme that flowed through the more than 200 sessions at the 9th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP). There were many more sessions in the Aug. 9-13 conference addressing issues such as stigma and discrimination, sexuality and gender, resource shortages, community involvement, harm reduction, human rights, men who have sex with men, drug users, and laws that criminalise behaviour by certain groups - rather than medical therapies. In closing ICAAP at the Bali International Convention Centre, World Health Organisation Regional Director for Southeast Asia Samlee Plianbangchang, dedicated more time to the social aspects of the epidemic rather than the biomedical ones during his remarks. "Equity and social justice are of paramount importance for responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic," Samlee told the some 3,600 participants at the conference. His remarks reflected how HIV is as much as social and development disease as it is a medical one.