Scary NY HIV Video

posted: 20/12/2010

New York City's Department of Health is defending a controversial ad that uses rotting brains, decaying bones and bleeding anuses to convince young gay and bi men to use condoms.
 

"I am completely comfortable with what we put out here. I have talked with many young men who are HIV positive," said Dr. Monica Sweeney, assistant commissioner for the city's Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control. "This is not fabricated. These are real conditions that affect people even though their viral load might be under control."
 

'Offensive and dishonest', or 'Prevention shock value'

The ad has split people – many are offended by its scare tactics and call the campaign dishonest – but others think the video's shock value could prevent the spread of HIV.
 

"I reject portraying my life -- 15 years and counting with HIV -- as a hellish nightmare," said Jim Pickett, advocacy director at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. "Has it been tough? Yes ... living with HIV is challenging, but it is not one big long scream of agony for most of us. But nuance isn't eye catching or sexy, is it?"
 

The controversial NY City Department of Health video ‘It’s Never Just HIV’

Scaring people about HIV does NOT work
There is no evidence that scaring people works for HIV – and much evidence to show it does far more harm than good – the recent UK review of all the evidence, the Role of Fear in HIV Prevention, shows the use of fear fails.
 

Does using fear of HIV work?
Would using more fear in HIV prevention work? ‘The role of fear in HIV prevention’ is written as a guide for gay men’s HIV prevention workers, but many other people, including people with HIV, are very interested in this and have strong views about it. It is an interesting and informative read, on four illustrated pages.
 

It looks at the scientific evidence for whether fear works or not, considers the ideas behind it, and looks into the unforeseen consequences and risks of using fear in HIV campaigns.
 

Fear is for the Fearless
The evidence shows that fear only works with people who are not already frightened by HIV. But 98% of gay men say (in Gay Men’s Sex Survey, 2008) they agree or agree strongly that “HIV is still a very serious medical condition.” So almost every single gay and bi man is already fearful of HIV. Perversely, adding to that fear can make things worse for the men at more risk of HIV.
 

As Adam Bourne says:

“It will remain a constant challenge for those promoting sexual health and well-being to attract the attention of their target audience among the many other advertisements that compete for their attention.
“The temptation is to produce shocking or explicit imagery, which may stand a better chance of being noticed or being remembered.
“However, it is doubtful whether it will actually be successful at influencing behavioural choices.
“Most gay men and other men who have sex with men are already motivated to avoid HIV, but some still lack the knowledge or the power to do so.”
________________________________________
“Inducing fear is not an effective way to promote previous HIV relevant learning or condom use either immediately following the intervention, or later on.
However, HIV counselling and testing can provide an outlet for previous HIV-related anxiety and, subsequently, gains in both knowledge and behaviour change immediately and longitudinally.”  Earl & Albarracin, 2007

The role of fear in HIV prevention, Adam Bourne, 2010, Sigma Research Briefing no.1 for the CHAPS gay and bi men’s HIV prevention partnership

Source

More information and comment from The Body (leading USA HIV website)

The NY City Department of Health video ‘It’s Never Just HIV’

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

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

Video Tales of Kenyan HIV

posted: 23/11/2009

Marking World Aids Day on 1 December, and a 10-year project with the Guardian, photographer Gideon Mendel travels to Kenya, to ask younger people with HIV what it means to them.
 

On the Guardian website click the 9 stunning images to launch videos of the people talking about their own experiences and what HIV means to them.

For individual descriptions by each person, and photographs please go to the Unicef UK Kenya Voices gallery

Stigma - The picture explains the feeling of how I was discriminated by my in-laws, my close friends and in my church.
 

Dorine - I’m a single lady called Dorine Nyangweso. I’m 23 years old. This picture shows the support group that helped me so much - these are the hands of my support group. I thank them very much, they have been supportive to my life - I could not be the way I used to be at first. I really thank them for the good heart they have and the spirit. May God bless them.

George - My name is George Wachira. I come from Kayole, a city near Nairobi in Kenya. I first knew about my status in 2003 after my mum passed. After her death I was taken to hospital because I wasn’t feeling very good. That’s when I realised I was HIV positive.
 

Jane - My name is Jane Nyambura. I’m 22 years old. I have one child, and I’m pregnant. The picture that I took behind the curtain shows that when I realised my HIV status I kept it to myself, I did not share it, and it cost me a lot because eventually my baby was tested HIV positive. Now I have so much knowledge because of sharing and being open about my HIV, I believe the baby I’m carrying will be HIV negative - that will make me very happy.

Caroline - My name is Caroline Acheng, I’m 24 years old. I live in Kisumu. I learned of my HIV status when I was pregnant. When I told my husband, he made a lot of noise - eventually he agreed to come to the hospital with me. He was also tested, and he was HIV positive.
 

Grace - My name is Grace Anyaugo, I come from Kisumu. I’m 26 years old. I got to learn about my HIV status when I was pregnant. My husband knows my HIV status, but he does not support me. My baby was tested last month, and she was HIV negative. I was very happy.
 

Bernard  - I’m Bernard Onyango. I’m from Tido. My sister asked me to go to the voluntary counselling and testing centre. We went together and I was tested. I turned out to be HIV positive. My wife was HIV negative, and eventually decided to leave me. Before I met my wife I had a girlfriend. I strongly believe that she’s the one who infected me.
 

Kenya To Count Gay Men

posted: 30/10/2009

HIV and gay rights campaigners in Kenya are likely to welcome Kenya’s attempt to carry out a nationwide survey to find out how many gay men there are, despite homosexuality still being illegal.

In a move described as a first for Africa, the Kenyan National Aids/STD Control Programme (Nascop) said it would begin the six-month research in December in an effort to help stop the spread of HIV.
Under the Kenyan penal code, a relic of British colonial rule, gay sex is punished by up to 14 years in jail. Gay and lesbian organisations have long complained that the law and widespread homophobia makes using and providing HIV treatment and prevention services difficult.
 

HIV prevention to target gay men
Nicholas Muraguri, director of Nascop, said the results of the study would facilitate targeted interventions, such as condom distribution, information on safe sexual practices and voluntary HIV testing. "We cannot continue excluding this group identified as a key driver to new HIV/Aids infections," Muraguri told the Standard newspaper in Nairobi.
 

Because of the law and the stigma attached to homosexuality – the recent marriage of two Kenyan men in the UK resulted in nasty news coverage and threats to their families – the study's results are unlikely to be very accurate. Nascop has promised confidentiality to respondents.
 

The Kenyan Treatment Access Movement, which estimates that about 290,000 of the more than 600,000 people who require anti-retroviral drugs are currently receiving them, said any move that helped people access HIV treatment was positive. But it questioned the government's sincerity because the harsh laws against homosexuality were still in place.
 

Source 

Picture credit