US: Bipartisan group of Missouri Lawmakers working to change HIV Laws that date from the 1980s

Missouri Lawmakers Want To Bring HIV Laws To The 21st Century

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is working to change current Missouri law on HIV that they say hasn’t been updated since the 1980s. 

Rep. Holly Rehder, R-Sikeston, said current laws now actually discourage people from being tested. She said if someone knowingly exposes their partner to HIV and they contract the disease, it’s a class A felony. This is the most serious of felony crimes which include murder, rape and forcible kidnapping. 

“If you don’t know your status, there’s no way in Missouri you can be charged with that class A felony,” Rehder said Wednesday in announcing the proposed legislative change. “Not knowing your status in Missouri, unfortunately, keeps people from having that concern, which, in turn, keeps people from getting tested.” 

In comparison, driving intoxicated and causing someone’s death is a class C felony. 

Rehder’s legislation would reduce knowingly exposing someone to HIV who then contracts it to a class C felony. Her bill also reduces the penalty of knowingly exposing someone to the disease who does not contract it from a class B felony to a class D felony. 

Rep. Tracy McCreery, D-St. Louis, filed separate legislation that completely eliminates felony charges and reduces all transmission offenses to misdemeanors. 

“That’s based on input that we received from experts around the country,” she said. “It puts it more in line with other kinds of disease transmission, as well.” 

Jeanette Mott Oxford, executive director with Empower Missouri, said it gets it out of the area of disclosure altogether. Both of these laws focus on intent. 

“Were you intending to transmit HIV? Because right now our law says condom use is no defense,” she said. “So you could be trying not to transmit HIV and still be charged with a crime in Missouri.”

There were roughly 13,000 people living with HIV in Missouri in 2018, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Missouri has also been categorized as one of seven states in the U.S. with a rural HIV epidemic. However, with adequate treatment, those who are HIV-positive can avoid getting AIDS. Medication can also suppress the virus and reduce the risk of transmitting it to another person. 

“HIV is no longer a death sentence if you’re being treated,” said Rehder. 

Rehder’s bill and McCreery’s bill have been pre-filed, but full language has not been made available yet. Sen. Shalonn “Kiki” Curls, D-Kansas City, plans to file similar legislation in the Senate next week. 

On another health issue, Rehder will again attempt to pass a statewide prescription drug monitoring program. 

Many states across the nation experienced a decrease in drug overdose deaths in 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But Missouri saw a 12% increase. 

Data from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services shows that one out of every 65 deaths in Missouri in 2017 was caused by opioid overdose. Also, Missouri is also the only state without a PDMP.

Rehder said she believes she has the support to get it done this year. Approaching her final year in the House, she said it’s incredibly important to get it done this legislative session. 

“I was raised on welfare, single mom, multiple stepdads, multiple mom’s boyfriends in the home; one of my stepdads was a dealer,” she said. “I had quite a bit of a different lifestyle than many of my colleagues. You know, I had to quit school at 15 to help take care of my family and had my first baby at 16. I’ve seen some things that maybe some others haven’t.”

Rehder said she feels a personal responsibility to explain how policies affect the people that grew up in “her part of the community.”

US: It’s time Ohio’s laws reflected our new understanding of the science of HIV

Ohio’s HIV laws should be based on science, not hysteria

Even if you weren’t a fan of the National Basketball Association in 1991, you probably remember the day in November that Earvin “Magic” Johnson, the dazzling point-guard of the Los Angeles Lakers announced he was retiring from the game after testing HIV-positive. How many more years did you give Magic? Three, four, maybe five?

Over the last 28 years, we’ve watched Magic briefly return to the NBA, coach the Lakers, announce NBA games, host a talk show, open movie theaters and coffee shops, buy a stake in the L.A. Dodgers and serve as Lakers president.

It would have been impossible in 1991 to conceive of Magic cycling through all those career choices because we couldn’t have imagined him having the time. But now, it’s fairly common to hear of people who’ve lived for decades after a positive diagnosis.

Their longevity shouldn’t be used to minimize the seriousness of the virus. If left untreated, HIV will cause AIDS, and AIDS will kill. But the advancements in treatment and prevention are reason enough to reconsider some of the decades-old laws that were drafted to punish people who sleep with others without informing them that they’re HIV-positive. Those laws were largely based on the belief that there was nothing on the other side of an HIV diagnosis but sickness and death.

In Ohio, a person who is HIV-positive can be sentenced up to eight years in prison and made to register as a sex offender for engaging in sexual conduct without disclosing their status.

What if that person uses a condom?

It doesn’t matter.

What if the person is faithfully taking pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PReP, which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by about 99%”

That doesn’t matter, either.

What if long after the fact, the partner tests negative for the virus?

Not even that matters. The offense, according to the law, is not telling. The crime isn’t the transmission. The crime isn’t even the likelihood of transmission. Just the not telling. Even if the person is reasonably trusting the science that says transmitting the virus is virtually impossible.

Greg Cote told Columbus radio station WOSU last month that he has made himself into a walking billboard proclaiming that he’s HIV-positive. As a policy, everybody should be as honest as he is. Even so, Cote hasn’t been intimate with anybody, he said, because if a bitter lover claims they weren’t informed, it can be difficult for people with HIV to prove to the satisfaction of jurors that they were, indeed, honest and forthcoming about their status.

A 2004 episode of The Chappelle Show included a sketch about “The Love Contract,” which was described as a way that people engaged in casual sex could prove in court that their partners consented. As absurd as the idea of a pre-coital contract sounds, advocates for Ohio’s HIV-positive residents say that or something close to that is required for them to prove that they haven’t been dishonest with their partners.

The Ohio Health Modernization Movement advises sexually active HIV-positive people to do one of the following things: save email or text messages that indicate that a potential partner has been informed of the person’s status; take that potential partner to a doctor’s visit or a caseworker’s visit so a third-party can confirm a disclosure was made; discuss one’s status in front of a third-party who can attest that a disclosure was made; video a conversation of a disclosure or, lastly, do what Chappelle did in that comedy sketch and have a potential partner sign a document. This document would acknowledge the partner’s awareness of the positive person’s status.

The best way for a HIV-positive people to protect themselves from criminal prosecution for consensual sex is to not getting tested. After all, Ohio law doesn’t allow people who don’t know that they’re HIV-positive to be charged with not telling their partners that they are. And this, advocates say, provides a regrettable incentive for people to avoid finding out if they’re carrying the virus.

The advocates’ position lines up with the federal government’s. In a 2014 report, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice cited a CDC finding that the stigma associated with an HIV diagnosis discourages many from learning their status. That DOJ report notes that “intentional HIV transmission is atypical and uncommon” and suggests that states rewrite their laws to focus on two types of offenders: HIV-positive rapists whose crimes put their victims at risk of contracting the virus and people who intend to transmit HIV through behavior that carries a “significant risk of transmission.”

Such a focus is warranted. Prosecutors shouldn’t be pursuing those who aren’t trying to infect their partners, especially those who’ve been made to believe that they can’t. The American Medical Association has called for a complete repeal of HIV criminalization laws, but the Ohio Health Modernization Movement favors changing a failure to disclose one’s status from a felony to a misdemeanor.

After retiring in 1991, Magic tried to return to the court in 1992, but many players expressed a fear of playing against him. But in 1996, Magic did return with hardly anybody objecting. Players had a better understanding, then, about how the virus is transmitted. And we have an even better understanding of things in 2019. It’s time our laws reflected that new understanding.

Jarvis DeBerry is a columnist at Cleveland.com and a member of the editorial board. Reach him at jdeberry@cleveland.com or on Twitter at @jarvisdeberry.

Australia: Northern Territory new sex industry bill decriminalises sex work

UNAIDS welcomes the decision by the Northern Territory of Australia to decriminalize sex work

GENEVA, 2 December 2019—UNAIDS applauds the decision by the parliament of Australia’s Northern Territory to decriminalize sex work. The Sex Industry Bill 2019 enhances the safety of sex workers and their clients by applying public health legislation to operators of sex service businesses and by allowing sex workers to work together. The legislation explicitly prohibits the exploitation of sex workers, supports their access to justice and outlaws any involvement of children.

“I commend this decision by Australia’s Northern Territory, which upholds the human rights of sex workers and means that they can operate within existing laws and regulations, including laws relating to employment, occupational health and safety, workers’ rights and discrimination,” said the UNAIDS Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima. “The decriminalization of sex work reduces the risk of HIV transmission for both sex workers and their clients.”

Globally, sex workers are 21 times more likely to acquire HIV than the general adult population. A 2014 study published in the Lancet indicated that the decriminalization of sex work is the single intervention that would have the greatest impact on the course of the HIV epidemic over 10 years, with reductions in new HIV infections among sex workers and their clients estimated at between 33% and 46%.

“This is a huge achievement built on the advocacy of sex workers and their supporters over many years and the result of best practice collaboration between the government and sex workers,” said the Chief Executive Officer of Scarlet Alliance, the Australian Sex Workers’ Association, Jules Kim. “Decriminalization means that sex workers in the Northern Territory are able to access justice in the event of a crime without fear of being arrested. We will also be able to implement occupational health and safety strategies and prioritize the health and safety of all those involved in sex work.”

Kenya: Advocates argue that HIV criminalisation law is impeding progress in Kenya’s response to the epidemic

Group criticises sexual offences law in war against HIV

In Summary

  • Despite the opposition from the State, persons living with HIV and Aids want the courts to declare section 26 of the Sexual Offences Act unlawful.
  • But the state argues that the challenged provisions are clear, precise, unambiguous, and do not disclose any infringement of their constitutional rights

The government could be shooting itself in the foot in the ongoing efforts to contain the spread of HIV and Aids by allowing the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to arrest and commence criminal trial against those suspected of spreading the virus.

The state has been calling on the public to come out openly and seek testing and treatment.

However, recent events where the DPP wants a 42-year-old woman in Nakuru jailed for breastfeeding and infecting her neighbour’s nine-month-old baby with HIV last year, could undo the gains already made in containing the spread of the virus.

It is feared that such prosecution may discourage others from going public about their status and seeking treatment among other state interventions aimed at curbing the virus.

The law under which the woman was charged, Section 26 of the Sexual Offences Act, is also the subject of litigation at the High Court by HIV positive persons (PLWHA) who want it repealed.

The woman’s lawyer, Ms Jenifer Mugweru, is appealing the orders issued by a magistrate on October 18, requiring her to provide her blood samples to be tested for HIV.

INFORMED CONSENT

The woman who is out on a Sh50,000 bond is said to have committed the offence on September 18, 2018 at Gichobo area in Njoro Sub-County.

The HIV and Aids Prevention and Control Act (Hapca), which has been in force since 2009, provides at Section 14 that, “No person shall undertake an HIV test in respect of another person except: (a) with the informed consent of that other person.”

Informed consent refers to consent given with the full knowledge of the risks involved, probable consequences and the range of alternatives available.

“Informed consent for HIV testing means that the person being tested for HIV agrees to undergo the test on the basis of understanding the testing procedures, the reasons for the testing, and is able to assess the personal implications of having or not having the test performed,” the HIV and Aids Tribunal ruled in one of its decisions.

In their application challenging Section 26 of the Sexual Offences Act, and its subsections, people living with HIV and Aids argue that it could undermine government efforts to eradicate or contain HIV and Aids spread.

They have interpreted section 26 of the Sexual Offences Act to imply that a person living with the disease is a potential criminal, who needs to be prosecuted and jailed, should it be established that he or she is “spreading” HIV/Aids.

POTENTIAL CRIMINAL

Section 26(1) of the Sexual Offences Act provides that “any person who, having actual knowledge that he or she is infected with HIV or any other ‘life threatening’ sexually transmitted disease, intentionally, knowingly and wilfully does anything or permits the doing of anything which he or she knows ….

“ … (a) Will infect another with HIV or any other ‘life threatening’ sexually transmitted disease … Shall be guilty of an offence, whether or not he or she is married to that other person, and shall be liable upon conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than fifteen years but which may be for life.”

The effect of this section and its subsidiary sections is that it perpetuates discrimination, stigma and fear against persons with HIV/Aids.

Living with the disease makes a person a criminal waiting to be arrested, prosecuted and visited with a lengthy jail term.

“It therefore discourages people from testing for HIV, seeking treatment and disclosing their status,” the litigants said in court papers.

According to people living with HIV and Aids, knowledge of one’s HIV status is important because it allows one to seek treatment and greatly reduces if not eliminates the risk of further transmission.

It also makes it possible to employ a range of other transmission prevention strategies and can improve expansion of HIV diagnosis and treatment, therefore a necessary condition for a successful HIV response.

“Section 26 of the Act thereby threatens progress gained and severely constrains further progress in Kenya’s response to the HIV epidemic,” the PLWHA argue.

PRIVACY

The section, according to the group, also intrudes on the privacy of marriage between consenting parties, it creates stigma and discrimination against couples in which one partner has HIV and the other does not (discordant couples).

It criminalises consensual physical intimacy between partners, threatens to separate families by removing a parent or partner from the family to be incarcerated (it criminalises procreation between discordant couples).

The group says the section creates stigma and discrimination against breastfeeding whereas this is the means by which most people in Kenya nourish their infants, and the only practical means by which to do so for many as well as the medically suggested means including people with HIV.

“And in that it threatens to separate children from their parents by removing the parent from the child to be incarcerated for lengthy periods on the basis of their HIV status, whereas it is in the presumptive interest of the child to be raised by both parents,” said PLWHA in court papers.

The group also takes issue with the meaning of the term “life-threatening sexually transmitted disease” or what constitutes it, saying it has not been explained in the Act, and the law is therefore vague in that respect.

VICTIM’S INTENTION

The state in defending the law disagrees with the arguments being advanced by the group, saying the challenged provisions are clear, precise, unambiguous, and do not disclose any infringement of their constitutional rights.

The group wants the court to declare Section 26 of the Sexual Offences Act unlawful. The case is still pending in the high court.

Further, that it is important to appreciate why section 26 of the Sexual Offences Act was enacted.

“While examining whether a particular law is unconstitutional, the court must have regard not only to its purpose but also its effect. The purpose of section 26 of the Sexual Offences Act was to address the intentional spread of HIV and Aids,” state counsel Anne Wanjiku Mwangi in court papers.

Despite the opposition from the State, persons living with HIV and Aids want the courts to declare section 26 of the Sexual Offences Act unlawful.

US: Growing number of Ohio public health experts and advocates call for reform of HIV criminalisation law

Experts: Ohio law on HIV status disclosure hurts public health

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A growing number of Ohio public health experts and advocates are now working to stop what they call the criminalization of HIV.

Daphne Kackloudis, Chief Public Policy Officer at Equitas Health, told News 5 Ohio’s current law charging someone who fails to disclose their HIV status with a felony in all cases is hurting public health.

Kackloudis said the threat of up to eight years in prison is causing too many people to avoid getting tested, because according the current law if someone doesn’t get tested, and isn’t aware of their status they can’t be prosecuted.

“It is a disincentive for someone to get tested, and that’s not good for an individuals health and the public health,” Kackloudis said.

“We want them to get on antiretroviral therapy to get as healthy as possible, and be virally suppressed so they can not transmit HIV.”

Kackloudis believes the potential penalty should be moved back to a misdemeanor in cases where those charged are on HIV medication and are a far less infection risk.

She said the current law allows someone to file charges against an HIV-positive partner, even if they didn’t get the virus from that partner.

Kackloudis is a member of the Ohio Health Modernization Movement , which is also making an effort to change Ohio law.

She also made it clear she fully understands why the law was created, and said the proposed change in the law would still allow for full prosecution of those who willingly give others HIV.

Graig Cote of Columbus, who has been HIV positive for 33 years, told News 5 changes in the law are needed because it’s too difficult to prove if someone made proper disclosure of their status or not, unless there was a witness or if it was in writing or recorded.

“If we don’t change the laws, people don’t get tested, if they don’t get tested they don’t know if they’re HIV positive,” Cote said.

“We’re not asking for a free ride, we’re just asking that the laws catch up with the science.”

Cote said he hopes the proposed change in Ohio law is ready to present at the statehouse in the first quarter of 2020, and again made it clear the effort would not keep those who willingly spread HIV from facing full prosecution.

“People who want to infect somebody need to be stopped, there’s no dispute about that,” Cote said.

Ireland: Review conducted by Law Reform Commission to look at how non-disclosure might influence consent

‘Should society criminalise intimate relations between people in their mid-teens?’

Conference hears age of consent is higher in Ireland than most European countries

The ways in which deception or pressure might negate consent are among the matters to be considered in a major review of sexual offences laws.

The review, being conducted by the Law Reform Commission, will also look at the age of consent, which is higher in Ireland than in most European countries.

NUI Galway lecturer in law, Tom O’Malley, who is a member of the commission, told its annual conference that the issue of consent remains a very contentious topic and one that many countries are trying to grapple with.

“When you have more subtle forms of pressure being applied, does that negate consent?”

He asked: What if a teacher or university lecturer told a student they would be failed unless the student slept with the lecturer, and the student did. “Is that rape?”

Suppose that a lecturer said a student would be given a first, rather than a 2.1, if the student slept with the lecturer, “would that be the absence of consent?”

“Those are the types of difficulties that are there and we have to grapple with them,” he said.

Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr O’Malley said that as part of its review, the commission would also be looking at how deception might influence consent.

For instance, he said, what if a man had not told a woman he was HIV positive prior to having sex with her. Would that affect the issue of consent and allow the man be charged with rape? Of if a man had promised a woman he would marry her, and then did not?

Another matter that will be looked at, he told the conference, is the age of consent. At the moment it is 17 years, and 18 years in cases where one of the parties is a person in authority.

“The real issue”, he told the conference, is whether society should criminalise intimate relations between people in their mid-teens.

While the age of consent is high in Ireland in comparison with most European countries, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 “mitigates the rigours of the law” by exempting a person who is younger or less than two years older than the child they had sex with, provided the child was between 15 and 17 at the time, and consented.

The commission will also look at the law on incest, which criminalises vaginal sexual intercourse between blood relatives.

Consenting intercourse between an adult brother and sister, even if there is no risk of pregnancy, is a crime. “One might question if such conduct should be criminal.”

As well as his work with the commission, Mr O’Malley is also the chairman of a working group set up by the Department of Justice and Equality which is reviewing the investigation and prosecution of sexual offences. It is due to report later this year, he said.

The chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Noeline Blackwell, said sexual offences were different to most other types of crime as they involved activity that is normally seen as healthy and good. Sexual crimes are particularly “disruptive” for the victim, she said.

Victims are badly served by the criminal justice system and the fact that approximately 90 per cent of sexual offences are not reported damages the rule of law, she said.

From the point of view of victims, the criminal justice system remains “a lonely and a difficult and a hostile place.”

Mexico: People with HIV in Jalisco can now marry as long as couple sign letter confirming awareness of HIV status and attend training on risks

People with HIV can now get married in Jalisco

If the couple signs an agreement, where both parties are aware of the responsibilities, scope and effects of chronic or contagious diseases such as HIV, they can marry, as established by the laws in Jalisco.

The Congress of Jalisco approved Wednesday changes to the Civil Code and the Civil Registry Law so that couples with diseases can get married.

Medical exams will continue as a requirement to get married, but couples must attach a signed letter stating they know the extent of the disease. They will also have to present a letter, issued by a public health institution, attesting that the couple attended a training on the risks, symptoms and effects of the condition.

This reform seeks to guarantee the free development of personality and protect human rights in Jalisco.

Personas con VIH ya pueden casarse en Jalisco

Si la pareja firma un acuerdo, donde ambas partes estén conscientes de las responsabilidades, alcances y efectos de las enfermedades crónicas o contagiosas como el VIH, puede contraer matrimonio, así lo establecerá las leyes en Jalisco.  

El Congreso de Jalisco aprobó este miércoles cambios al Código Civil y la Ley del Registro Civil para que las parejas con enfermedades puedan casarse.

Los exámenes médicos continuarán como un requisito para contraer matrimonio, pero las parejas deberán anexar un escrito firmado donde afirmen conocer los alcances de la enfermedad. Además tendrán presentar una carta, emitida por una institución de salud pública, que dé fe que la pareja asistió a una capacitación sobre los riesgos, síntomas y efectos del padecimiento.

Esta reforma busca garantizar el libre desarrollo de la personalidad y proteger derechos humanos en Jalisco. 

Ukraine: The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union raises awareness on the need to decriminalise HIV-status

Valeria Rachynska: “We must finally stop the witch-hunting and decriminalize HIV-status”

On 18 October, 2019 in the premises of IA “Glavkom” UHHRU conducted the press-conference on the topic: “Why Ukraine must decriminalize HIV-status”. The main topics of the presentations included: raising awareness on actual HIV statistics in Ukraine, issues of overcoming stigma in relation to people living with HIV (PL HIV), and position of the lawyers regarding legal criminalization of HIV status (article 130 CC of Ukraine).

Oleksandr Pavlichenko, UHHRU Executive Director: “Despite the fact that recently we achieved significant success in treating HIV in Ukraine, obsolete legislative provisions are still in force – article 130 of the CC. This article treats all Ukrainian citizens with HIV+ status as potential criminals, envisages punishment of up to 3 years of imprisonment and gave base for dozens of court decisions each year. From the legal point of view of the European Convention on Human Rights the formulation incorporated in this article is vague, it cannot be considered as a law, and needs to be amended”.

Olena Stryzhak, Chairman of the Board of CO “Positive Women”: “Our organization for 5 years already advocates the amendments to the legislation and 3 years ago we submitted the package of amendments in which we insisted on decriminalization of HIV-status. All years of our work, both as service organization and as organization protecting human rights, prove that HIV stigma and criminalization lead to the situation where people are afraid of disclosing the status, which further hinders effective treatment and socialization of PL HIV”.

Valeriya Rachynska, Director of the Department for Work with the Regions, “All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS”: “First of all, I would like to mention that in addition to legislative problems there is one more problem – general indifference of mass media to highlighting the situation with HIV/AIDS. If that was not the case everybody would know that in July 2018 there was an official WHO Statement stressing that people having HIV status, who undergo antiretroviral therapy and have minimal viral load have practically no chances for HIV sexual transmission. The risk is equal to zero. In Ukraine, 92% of PL HIV, which take ART, have minimal viral load. It is the obsolete legislative provision that additionally stigmatize them and assaults their dignity. We must finally stop the witch-hunting and decriminalize HIV-status”.

Svitlana Moroz, Chairman of the Board of Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS: “Our organization pays special attention to the problem of HIV-status criminalization. We are monitoring 12 countries in the region and have information of absolutely outrageous cases related to PL HIV criminalization. For example, when raped women is afraid to apply to court against the rapist, because she has positive status. Current legislation not only makes criminals out of HIV+ people, it shifts the blame for getting infected exclusively on PL HIV and creates wrong perception of the citizens’ protection. Following this logic, the state shall prohibit discordant couples and HIV+ women giving birth. Besides, Ukrainian criminal legislation contradicts the Law on AIDS where a lot is said about counteracting PL HIV stigmatization. Article 130 of the CC of Ukraine fosters stigma, hinders access to treatment, and in general does not takes into account scientific achievements in fighting HIV/AIDS during the recent 20 years”.

Justification of the legal position of CO “Positive Women” regarding immediate HIV status decriminalization can be found at the link.

Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union implements the project the project “Development of the legal network for protection of the people living with HIV/AIDS, representatives of key PLHIV communities and persons ill with TB” with the financial support of the Charitable organization “All-Ukrainian Network of the People Living with HIV/AIDS” in the framework of implementation of the project “Releasing the Burden of TB and HIV infection through creation of the open access to timely and quality diagnostics and treatment of the TB and its resistant forms, expanding evidence based prevention, diagnostic and treatment of HIV infection, and creation of stable and sustainable health protection systems”, which is implemented with the financial support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

China: New HIV control plan includes provisions for investigation of “deliberate” HIV transmission and mandatory testing of sex workers

China rolls out plan for controlling HIV transmission

China has rolled out a plan for the control of HIV transmission in a bid to keep HIV/AIDS prevalence in the country at a low level.

The three-year plan, made by the National Health Commission and nine other government departments, sets a number of goals such as raising the awareness of HIV prevention and control, and educating people on avoiding or reducing unsafe sexual behaviors.

The goals also include detecting and treating as many HIV infection cases as possible, curbing the rise of HIV transmission through sexual behaviors and eliminating mother-to-child transmission.

An HIV prevention education program has been set up, focusing on enhancing individuals’ awareness and strengthening the effect of education measures targeting residents, migrant populations, elderly people and groups at higher risk for HIV.

The plan also requires higher accessibility of condoms in public places such as hotels. Increased efforts should be made to crack down on law violations and crimes that may lead to HIV transmission, according to the plan.

The plan urges expanded HIV testing to detect and treat HIV-infected individuals with utmost efforts as an effective way to curb the rise of sexual transmission of HIV. 

Information on the new provisions is available here: http://www.nhc.gov.cn/jkj/s7925/201910/adc374d0613144b2b7bb5d6c58a60223.shtml

Australia: Mandatory testing laws in Western Australia are not appropriate in cases of spitting and are based on misinformation

HIV experts fear ‘spitting laws’ being misused by police

About 100 people a year have been forced to be tested for HIV in Western Australia since so-called spitting laws were introduced four years ago.

HIV advocates have called for the reversal of so-called “spitting laws”, which they say are being misused in some states and increasing stigma.  

An audit, released on Thursday, showed Western Australia had the highest rates of mandatory testing of a person whose bodily fluids come into contact with police or emergency service workers, such as through biting or spitting.

In less than four years since the laws were introduced, 377 people in WA have been forced to get tested.

While in Victoria, where a medical specialist makes the decision, no mandatory tests have been ordered.

The audit, conducted by the National Association of People with HIV Australia, recommended the laws be repealed, describing their introduction in the first place was “perplexing and problematic”.

“Although violence against emergency services workers may be increasing, risk of HIV transmission is not,” the report stated.

“If anything, effective treatments mean that the majority of people living with HIV in Australia have a low or undetectable viral load, making transmission unlikely or impossible in the types of circumstances covered by these laws.”

HIV Justice Network senior policy adviser Sally Cameron said the audit’s WA findings were alarming.

“We think it is likely that the tests are being misused. It’s unclear whether there is any ill intent or not,” Ms Cameron told SBS News.

Ms Cameron stressed that they did not condone violence in any circumstance, particularly against emergency service personnel.

“For us, this isn’t an issue of us and them, our priority is that people are not unduly stressed by fear of HIV. That people do not go through stress and trauma when in fact there is no risk,” she said.

She called for better training of police officers and judicial oversight of decisions to force someone to be tested.

“This isn’t about saying they should be able to do whatever they want. The issue is whether it’s appropriate to do something as invasive as a blood test when in fact that there is no risk that anything’s concerned.”

Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine policy director Scott McGill said the so-called spitting laws were based on misinformation about the risk of transmission.

“Unfortunately our laws and policy are not only behind the curve in terms of that evidence, but also going in the wrong direction,” he told SBS News. 

“If we keep going down this path… we’re going to inadvertently fuel stigma, fuel fear which really means people won’t come forward for testing and treatment, will be fearful of what some of the consequences are and increases anxiety on both sides of the equation.”

At the time the laws were passed, then-police minister Liza Harvey told the ABC they were overdue and would help protect police officers.

She said the testing would assist in the diagnosis, clinical management and treatment of the exposed police officer. 

In April, the alleged violent assault of a police officer in Sydney, who was spat at and bitten, reignited debate about mandatory testing laws.  

NSW is one of only two jurisdictions in Australia that hasn’t introduced  in response to concerns about rising assaults on police and emergency service workers. 

President of the Police Association of NSW Tony King told 10 Daily the officer faced months of uncertainty as she waited for the results of an infectious diseases test.  

“This officer like many others will now have to change their lifestyle for fear of passing on possible infection. Can you imagine explaining to your own child why you can’t give them a kiss goodnight?” he said in April. 

But HIV experts said such claims were myths based on misinformation.  

“The likelihood of anything actually happening is extraordinarily low and we don’t have any recorded events of occupational exposure,” Mr McGill said.