Community Service for HIV+ Popstar

posted: 26/08/2010

Updated 27 August

The HIV-positive German popstar accused of infecting her former partner was given a two-year suspended sentence and is required to do 300 hours of community service work, if possible working with an organisation that helps people with HIV.
 

Nadja Benaissa, 28, admitted having unprotected sex and not telling her partner she has HIV, as German law requires. The law is different in the UK.
 

The No Angels singer was found guilty of causing bodily harm to one man, and of two cases of attempted bodily harm.
 

Benaissa admitted she had sex with three partners without telling them she has HIV. One of them later tested HIV positive.

Virus evidence unchallenged

The court ruled that she had "in all probability" infected one of her lovers, who contracted HIV at the time of their relationship and that she had endangered the life of another, who remains free of the virus. Similar accusations towards the singer made by a third former lover, which were originally included in evidence, were not heard in order to speed up the trial.

The prosecution evidence given by the expert German virologist, Professor Josef Eberle of Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, said there was little doubt that Benaissa had infected the man, because they both had a very similar strain of the virus, a rare form which was first discovered in West Africa.

However this evidence went unchallenged (because she pleaded guilty) and it is notable that the judge only said that 'in all probability' she infected him. In a criminal case in Britain 'in all probability' is not good enough - she has to be proved the source of his infection 'beyond reasonable doubt'.

Having a similar strain of HIV, even if this is rare in Germany, doesn't prove he could not have been infected by someone else with the same strain. Until a few years ago the Crown Prosecution Service in Britain made the same sweeping claims about people who shared the same rare strain of HIV. Then expert virologists for the defence here demonstrated that this proves nothing except that two people have the same strain of HIV. The man could have got that same strain from someone else.   

She could have faced up to 10 years in jail, but prosecutors sought a lenient sentence because she confessed and expressed remorse.
Benaissa was arrested very publicly in Frankfurt last year, shortly before she was due to perform a solo concert, and spent 10 days in custody.
 

Pressures and a hard life 

The five-day trial, which took place in a youth court in Darmstadt as Benaissa was just 16 when the first offences took place, heard detailed evidence of the pop star's troubled youth. Benaissa spent time living on the street, where she developed a drug addiction. She had a child when she was 16.

Stop and Think

For those of us who are quick to say: how could she? I would like to ask a few questions: could you imagine finding out you are pregnant, and that you also have HIV, at 17? Can you imagine the fear that you could possibly infect the baby, and the anxiety that the medications you need to take in order to prevent the transmission may harm you and the baby? Can you imagine fearing for your own future? How would you tell your partner, or your ex, or the person you are hoping to have a relationship with? And what could the consequences be?
 

Source BBC

Update Source The Guardian 
Stop and Think from HIV Policy Speak Up blog
Statement by German HIV organisation Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe (in English) on HIV and the Criminal Law
HIV criminalisation blog

Image

Positive Pop Star on Trial

posted: 17/08/2010

The lead singer of Germany's best-selling girl band was in a young people’s court yesterday on charges of failing to tell three male partners she had HIV and of passing on HIV to one of them. She was just 17 when she discovered she was HIV positive and when the alleged offences begun.
 

Nadja Benaissa, 28, of the group No Angels, is accused of having had sex with three partners, a few times each, between 2000 and 2004, without informing them of her HIV status. One of the men got HIV.
 

Arrested before concert in blaze of publicity

Benaissa, who found out she had HIV a decade ago when she tested as part of routine health screening in pregnancy, was arrested in a blaze of publicity in April 2009 just before No Angels were due to appear on stage at a Frankfurt nightclub. She was handcuffed by plainclothes police, driven away in front of fans, then held in custody for 10 days.
 

Campaigners for the rights of people with HIV were highly critical of the public manner in which the arrest was made, calling it a "modern witch-hunt", and have accused prosecutors of a grave breach of privacy after they made public the fact that Benaissa had HIV.
Benaissa's is the first HIV trial in Germany in which a celebrity is in the dock.
 

Doubts about transmission
Giving evidence to the court, the unidentified 34 year old man who claims she infected him said: "We had sex between five and seven times, about three of those were unprotected."
 

Nadja Benaissa, who is accused of grievous bodily harm and attempted aggravated assault, told the court in Darmstadt that she had failed to tell her partners about her condition. The singer, said she had not meant to cause any of the men injury, having been advised that it was highly unlikely that she would transfer the virus to anyone with whom she had sex. "I never wanted this to happen to any one of my partners," she said.
 

In a statement by the singer, read to court by her lawyer, Oliver Wallasch, she added: "I'd been told the likelihood of infecting someone or that I would develop the illness was more or less zero. For that reason I kept the news even from my close group of friends [as] I didn't want my daughter to be stigmatised. I told the band members because I trusted them but I never made it public because I feared that it would mean the end of the band."
 

Wait for the expert scientific evidence

The five-day trial is due to hear from Professor Josef Eberle of Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, who is expected to testify that the man may have been infected by someone else.
 

In England and Wales, prosecution guidelines say phylogenetic analysis must be carried out before cases come to court. It is exceptionally difficult now for prosecutors here to prove a HIV transmission case. If this case was in the UK, the prosecutors would have to prove none of the man’s other sexual partners could have given him HIV. We should wait to hear the evidence of the professor.
 

Witnesses in the trial, which has attracted scores of No Angels fans, are expected to include Benaissa's fellow band members, Sandy Mölling, Jessica Wahls, and Lucy Diakovska. A verdict is due on 26 August.
 

Under German law the crime of failing to disclose you have HIV to someone before having sex with them carries a prison sentence of between six months and 10 years.
 

Talking about HIV
Following the publicity about her HIV the singer has often talked publicly about it, including in a prominent speech to the Berlin AIDS Gala last November, in which she said: "I thought my life was destroyed, as well as that of my nine-year old, infection-free daughter."
But she has stressed that thanks to modern medicine "I am a completely healthy person, even if I'm HIV positive. I have a perfectly normal life expectancy."
 

No Angels, an all-girl band with four members, was discovered 10 years ago during a TV talent show when they beat 4,500 other hopefuls for the top prize. They went on to become Germany's most successful female band, often compared to Girls Aloud. Between 2000 and 2003 they sold 5 million records, including three No 1 albums and four No 1 singles, among them their most famous hit, Daylight in Your Eyes. The band broke up but reunited to take part in the Eurovision song contest in 2008, in which they came 23rd. They released a new album last summer.
 

Source

image

USA - Treatment as Prevention

posted: 10/12/2009

The USA has joined the list of countries producing national statements about how effective HIV treatment can make passing on HIV during sex very unlikely. 

The USA statement uses much the same evidence as the earlier Swiss, French and German statements on HIV treatment as prevention that we have reported. However, it is a lot more cautious, urging continued consistent condom use.

"In summary, for couples in which one member is HIV-infected, treatment of the infected partner with effective ART and suppression of viral load to undetectable levels should greatly reduce the risk of transmission to the uninfected partner. However, this risk is not eliminated and it may not be maximally reduced at all times due to some of the factors discussed above. Moreover, the likelihood of transmission may be expected to increase with repeated exposures over time."

"In a model which estimated transmission risk in the setting of suppressed viral load (<50 copies/mL) without intercurrent STIs, the number of expected transmission events occurring within a population of 10,000 serodiscordant couples over 10 years was estimated to be 215 for female-to-male transmission, 425 for male-to-female transmission, and 3,524 for male-to male transmissions [31]."

"In a meta-analysis of data from 11 cohorts including 5,021 heterosexual couples observed no transmissions among persons receiving ART with a viral load of <400 copies/mL; however, analysis of the data was compatible with the possibility of one event per 70 person-years [32]. For this reason, it is important that individual couples recognize the risk, and use additional preventive methods (e.g., condoms) in order to further minimize the chance of transmission."

So they advise condoms for heterosexual couples to prevent a 1 in 70 person years possibility of transmission.

This statement and advice comes from the US Centers for Disease Control.

Effective HIV treatment where the viral load is undetectable reduces the risk of HIV transmission but some slight risk remains. The risk is higher for gay men than most heterosexual people, and sexually transmitted infections especially raise the risk of transmission.

US Centers for Disease Control statement Effect of Antiretroviral Therapy on Risk of Sexual Transmission of HIV Infection and Superinfection [read on webpage] OR download it as a pdf

French statement

German statement

Swiss statement

German HIV Campaign - Positive Protests

posted: 08/09/2009

People living with HIV are furious about a new German HIV awareness campaign. It features Hitler, Stalin and Saddam Hussein with the message AIDS is a Mass Murderer. It seems to say people with HIV are mass murderers for having sex. It does not even advise people to use condoms.
 

The campaign will run in German cinemas, TV, radio and on posters until December 1st, World AIDS Day. It is creating an international outcry. It's being promoted by the German HIV awareness organisation, Regenbogen e.V (Rainbow Association) whose web address is stopaids.de.

They are a regional community organisation based in Bavaria (capital Munich) in the SE Germany. Rainbow Association are funded by the district of Upper Bavaria, as well as by charitable bodies such as Rotary International and the Munich-Keferloh Lions Club .

The campaign has an English version on their website (try that link if you can't reach their website if that has crashed) and you can see everything there for yourself. You can view their TV / cinema advert video here. It is sexually graphic. Scroll down that page for the posters, radio MP3 and a music video - all part of the campaign.
 

The creators of the campaign defended it, amid growing criticism.

Das Comitee, an advertising agency in the city of Hamburg, in North Germany, said the advert's shock value was aimed at highlighting the dangers of unprotected sex, at a time when public awareness about the risks was diminishing. "We knew the face we gave to the illness could not be a pretty one," said Dirk Silz, the creative director. The advert was trying to "show the ugliness of the illness, not of AIDS victims", he added. 
 

Das Comitee said it had worked for nothing on the film, and had received a positive response so far. "If it wakes people up to the dangers of unprotected sex, we've been effective," Silz said.

People with HIV are outraged: the campaign shows people with HIV = mass murderers

But organisations representing people living with HIV across Europe have condemned it, saying it only adds to the stigma they already suffer by appearing to put them on a par with mass murderers.
 

The agency explain their campaign in English on their press page

HIV organisations condemn

But organisations representing people living with HIV across Europe have condemned it, saying it only adds to the stigma they already suffer by appearing to put them on a par with mass murderers.
 

Others criticised the campaign for failing to offer any prevention advice, such as to use condoms.

George House Trust comment

The campaign is wrong-headed for so many reasons, and we strongly suspect that the advertising agency who did a great deal of work for free, have set out to deliberately provoke, simply to get themselves publicity and business during the recession. Bennetton's advertisements have used this provoking tactic repeatedly.

The Rainbow Association has been foolish in the extreme.

Anti-HIV Stigma and discrimination is reinforced to an intense degree. If AIDS is a mass murderer was part of a British newspaper headline, we'd be complaining immediately to the Press Council, and for these adverts, to the Advertising Standards Authority.

AIDS as a cause of death is now uncommon in Germany and the UK. In North West England in 2008 31 people died an AIDS-related death. 24 died of other causes out of 5767 people diagnosed with HIV in this region.

With modern HIV treatments most people with HIV in the West will not die of AIDS or even get an AIDS diagnosis. (AIDS means having one of an official list of illnesses that can follow HIV infection at a late stage).

The advertising campaign should be about avoiding HIV and avoiding passing that on.

The advertising agency says that the advert was trying to "show the ugliness of the illness, not of AIDS victims" and this is simply nonsense. Using 'AIDS' rather than 'HIV' raises fear and stigma; the word victim makes people with HIV the murderers, and implies there is nothing the victims can or should do to protect themselves. 'The ugliness of the illness' makes people with HIV feel bad about themselves, and takes us back to the really unhelpful and wrong idea that you can tell, by looking, that someone has HIV.

There's no prevention message or advice on what to do, whether you are positive, negative, or don't know.
 

The campaign perversely ignores the German reality and statistics - most people with HIV and becoming HIV positive in Germany are gay men. Between 50 and 60%. But all the images are of heterosexual sex and the target for the message that is shown are white heterosexual German women. 

Showing white German women as the victims of history's mass-murderers does nothing to help the uninfected German gay men who are at the most risk.

This is one of the worst campaigns we can remember. It takes us back to the AIDS hysteria and clumsy government campaigns of the 1980s, see our report on the hospital detention in Manchester of a man with AIDS in Manchester, in 1985, for an example - the AIDS tombstone campaign.

Have a look yourself at their campaign and then tell them what you think, on their English message page.

Here's an improved version of google's automatic translation of what they say on their front page about their "AIDS is a mass murderer" campaign for World AIDS Day 2009.
 

"For the World AIDS Day campaign of Rainbow Association, our Advertising Agency 'The Committee', went back to basics. There will be additions to the comprehensive campaign in the coming weeks. Elements of the campaign leading up to World AIDS Day 2009 include TV and cinema commercials, viral adverts, a music video, radio adverts and posters.
Because of the alarmingly high numbers of people with HIV, our World AIDS Day campaign has a clear message: "AIDS is a mass murderer," which is the new slogan.
The greatest mass murderers of recent history are shown having sex. The campaign aims to shake people up, make HIV a central issue and stop the rise in unprotected sex. Because anyone can become infected. Visit the campaign here."
 

Based on Source with additional material

Elizabeth Pisani's comments in The Guardian speaks a lot of sense. Her blog is The Wisdom of Whores and is worth watching.

German Risk Statement

posted: 27/04/2009

We have had the Swiss Statement, now their neighbours, the Germans, have issued their own on the risks of HIV transmission from people taking HIV treatment successfully.

The Swiss told us last year that people on HIV treatment, if they meet certain conditions, can be considered uninfectious. Now the largest HIV voluntary sector organisation in Germany, Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe, has issued a paper largely supporting this statement.
 

The German paper describes sexual transmission, where the HIV-positive partner is

• adhering to effective combination therapy,
• has had an undetectable viral load for the last six months and
• has no sexually transmitted infections,

as ‘unlikely’ and describe this as being as effective as using condoms. They add that it is also important that there is no other damage to either person’s mucous membranes.

Stable, long-term different-HIV-status relationships
Both the German and Swiss organisations say their statements are relevant to stable, long-term relationships where one partner has HIV. After the couple has made a decision, based on good information and advice, regular viral load testing and sexual health check-ups are recommended.
 

HIV is sometimes found in semen even though it is undetectable in blood.

However, Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe argues that relying on effective treatment as a means of HIV transmission prevention is a realistic HIV prevention approach, and that individual couples already  make decisions about the level of risk they take.

Read the English language version of the German statement

Swiss statement report