European Parliament Votes for HIV

posted: 09/07/2010

In the run up to the largest and most prestigious International AIDS Conference in Vienna (which begins later this month), HIV campaigners across Europe have won a big a vote in the European Parliament for a human rights based approach to HIV. There is now a list of 25 things that should happen next according to the European Parliament’s resolution.
The vote was 400 for and 166 against.
 

After a list of reasons, on page four the 25 actions that the European Parliament and its institutions should now take begins.  It's a shopping list of actions to do the best that is possible to deal with the HIV epidemic for people within Europe and the rest of the world. 

What they voted for

It calls for a human rights approach to dealing with HIV and lists a whole range of things to make this happen - such as decriminalising HIV transmission, and providing healthcare to all, because this is now part of the universal declaration of human rights.

Here is the full Resolution which has just been voted through
You can find the whole debate here – video and printed versions
 

Asylum Right to Work Campaign

posted: 28/06/2010

People applying for asylum are not normally allowed to work. If people seeking asylum are still waiting for the first decision on their claim for 12 months or more, then they can ask for permission to work.

George House Trust and the community HIV sector strongly support extending the right to work after six months. This was one of the recommendations in NAT’s 2006 report HIV and Poverty: Findings from the Crusaid Hardship Fund. Working is a really simple and effective way to help reducing poverty among asylum seekers and show respect for people’s autonomy and personal dignity.

If the government changed the rules, taxpayers will be saved from paying benefits to support people who are able to and want to work, but aren’t allowed to. It means that working asylum seekers won’t need to turn to charity to get by. And those who are allowed to stay in the UK will find it much easier to become part of British society if they’ve already been given a chance to work.

Asylum seekers are amongst the vulnerable people in our society, and many are affected by HIV. Over a quarter of Crusaid Hardship Fund grants between 2006 and 2009 were paid to asylum seekers. Some of these applicants received Section 95 or Section 4 support, some relied on friends and family, and others had no support at all. All asylum seekers with HIV experience severe poverty, and poverty always has bad effects on people’s health.

You can support the campaign by emailing your MP and asking your MP to sign a declaration in favour of giving asylum seekers the right to work after 6 months. Simply enter your postcode in the box at this 38 Degrees campaign webpage 

UK HIV Prevention for Africans

posted: 22/06/2010

‘Testing is the only way you can tell if you are infected with HIV’ is the message of the new HIV campaign by the African HIV Policy Network. The campaign theme TALK and TEST aims to signpost Africans wanting to talk about HIV testing or about living with HIV, to the free and confidential African HIV information helpline: 0800 0967 500 – Monday to Friday, 10am – 6pm.
 

They are keen for people to visit the African HIV information website Do-It-Right for facts and figures about HIV, to find out more about HIV testing, and take part in the Life Check interactive HIV information quiz. This hopes to offer a fun way to find out more about everything from the basics of HIV, to taking HIV treatments.
 

Untested worries
TALK and TEST is based on results from the latest Bass Line survey of 2,500 Africans living in England. Bass Line found that almost 40% of African people living in England have never tested for HIV, and among the untested, 1 in 10 feel too afraid to test because of fear about having HIV.
Another one-in-eight want to test for HIV but did not know where to go for an HIV test.
 

Ford Hickson, the leading researcher on Bass Line, said: “Many African people in England would test for HIV if they knew where to go for a test. However, influencing testing in other Africans requires increasing their perception of risk from HIV infection, and increasing their understanding of the benefits of testing and the potential harm associated with not knowing their HIV status.
The vast majority know that
• HIV is a virus that can be passed during sexual intercourse
• that HIV cannot be passed through everyday contact
• that there is a medical test that can show whether someone is infected.”

Jabulani Chwaula – National African HIV Prevention Programme Manager says “Those who lack social power turn out to be those with the greatest need for skills and confidence to help them avoid getting or passing on HIV. Resolving this means paying attention to treatment access, stigma, discrimination, and immigration policy.”
Free and confidential African HIV information helpline: 0800 0967 500 – Monday to Friday, 10am – 6pm.
African HIV information website Do It Right
African HIV Policy Network 020 7017 8910
e-mail
NAHIP website
 

‘Health Tourism’ Mischief

posted: 08/06/2010

Sunday Times deputy editor Isabel Oakeshott has written an ignorant and mischief-making scare story about people from abroad using NHS money. People with HIV were included among those the NHS ‘counter-fraud unit’ listed as responsible.
 

The story calls it health tourism. The Department of Health has published no evidence that people with HIV come here as tourists deliberately to get HIV treatment. The only evidence there is (a snapshot survey by George House Trust and Terrence Higgins Trust) shows people do not know they have HIV when they travel here (to seek asylum, to start a university course, or to work, or visit family …. ).
 

Legal rights ignored
Most people from abroad who do have HIV treatment have every legal right to this. The few who are chargeable under the legal rules usually only find out they have HIV months or years after arrival, and their HIV diagnosis is always a big shock.

The NHS charging rules worsen public health in the UK by discouraging people from taking (always free) HIV tests. Untested and untreated people with HIV are likely to be much more infectious and lead to more HIV infections in the UK. Testing and HIV treatment can make people with HIV almost uninfectious, and that can save the NHS a lot more money than not treating everyone who needs this. HIV is the only sexually transmitted infection that can be left untreated because of these charging rules.
 

The Times report says that in eight-months last year, hospitals reported £24m in “bad debts”, 'most linked to patients from abroad'. The article suggests hospitals recover some of the cash later, but not much. The report says ‘According to the NHS’s counter-fraud unit, health tourism has a particularly heavy impact on maternity services, HIV care and cancer and heart units’.
 

Wrong about pregnant women, cancer, serious heart disease, HIV rights
The newspaper report is mischievous and malicious. The law and official guidance to NHS hospitals tells hospitals they must provide ‘immediately necessary’ or ‘urgent’ treatment.

Who would or could refuse a pregnant woman emergency care, or someone with life-threatening heart conditions, cancer, HIV?
 

Accident and Emergency – wrong again
It claims, without quoting any evidence, that “thousands of foreigners have been diagnosed in their own countries who cannot afford treatment there simply turn up at accident and emergency units in British hospitals and demand to be seen”.

Again this completely ignores the law and official NHS guidance – anyone needing accident and emergency care is always entitled to it without any charge. We get and would expect this if we are abroad and need emergency care.
“6.7 Some NHS services provided in NHS trusts are free to everyone regardless of the status of the patient. This Regulation says what these services are. The current list includes: a. treatment given in an accident and emergency department or casualty department......”
 

Doctors opposed
It correctly reports that most doctors dislike the charging system because medical ethics and the Hippocratic oath mean it is unethical to turn away patients who need urgent medical help.
 

Blame the Irish and Welsh – wrong
It also falsely blames people from the Irish Republic. Irish Citizens have always had the right to come and go freely and live here and use UK services. Brits can do the same in Ireland.

It seeks to create divisions within the UK by blaming people living in Wales for using NHS services in England, although the Welsh pay UK taxes just like everyone else. The Welsh are not foreign or migrants.
 

The Department of Health is already reviewing its policy on foreign patients.
 

Times article

Working Life and New Rights

posted: 05/05/2010

The Equalities Act squeezed through Parliament just before the election. In October it will be law that you can use. What difference might it make to the world of work for people with HIV?
 

What’s new? 
In work situations the main new disability rights are:

• A ban on most health related questions until after a job offer is made - so asking if you have HIV or details of any health problems and absences will be barred - until they have offered the job. There are some exemptions- for example they will be able to ask if you require any adjustments to be able to carry out a task during your job selection / interview, or to ask if you are a ‘disabled person’ on a simple equality monitoring form.
• Introduction of ‘protected characteristics’ – ‘disability ‘ is one of these . Protected characteristics are the groups and situations where people have legal protection from discrimination. Protected from discrimination are people with disabilities (this includes everyone with HIV), sexuality, gender, race, age, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, and religion or belief.
• Discrimination by Association. This protects people from discrimination when they are associated with a person with protected characteristics – eg the HIV negative / untested partner of someone with HIV will also be protected. So refusing a job to a HIV negative (or untested) gay man for fear that he might have HIV and need time off work, would be illegal disability discrimination.
• Discrimination by Perception. Someone may mistakenly believe you are a disabled person and discriminate against you because of this. This is now illegal too.
• Combined Discrimination. People can now claim direct discrimination for up to 2 protected characteristics – so you could claim discrimination both about HIV and race, or HIV and gender, or HIV and sexuality – or any other combination. 
• Detriment Arising from Disability. This gives back the legal right not to face ‘less favourable treatment’ – court decisions made this difficult to win. For example sacking someone for taking reasonable time off for a HIV clinic appointment is wrong – it is an impairment-related absence. The employer would have to prove the dismissal was a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
• Duty to make reasonable adjustments – this is now a little better - employers now have to provide auxiliary aids or services to remove any disadvantage the person experiences.
• There’s a broader definition of disability to include more people, but everyone with HIV is already protected as ‘ disabled.’ This therefore helps some people who don’t have HIV. People now only have to show that any impairment they may have has a “substantial and long term effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities”.

More Information

For more background, and for an easy read summary of the Act, visit the Equalities Office website

Eversheds (they are lawyers) Guide to the Act for Employers
Equality and Human Rights Commission:
HR Magazine article

Source - Breakthrough UK