DURBAN, South Africa, Sept 5 (AFP) - Discrimination and stigma intensify the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, the head of the UN programme on AIDS said Wednesday.
"Unequal access to life-saving HIV treatments is one of the most glaring global examples of gross discrimination," Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, told delegates at a global racism conference in Durban, South Africa.
"Nothing better illustrates the continuing destructive force of discrimination, intolerance and stigma in the world today than the global AIDS epidemic," he said.
"For the great majority of people living with HIV, treatments that have slashed death rates in wealthy countries are simply out of reach," Piot told a panel discussion taking place at the UN World Conference Against Racism.
He said HIV discrimination becomes an additional burden for sufferers of "pre-existing stigmas" -- racial stereotyping or stigmas against sexual minorities.
Piot cited the example of aboriginal women with HIV in Canada who he said "routinely find their needs ignored and rights violated in ante- and post-natal care".
In the United States, he said about two-thirds of new AIDS cases were among African Americans and Latinos.
He called for action from governments and societies on several fronts, including providing appropriate health and social services and being sensitive to discrimination.
He also called on leaders at all levels to challenge HIV discrimination and stressed a need to ensure a "supportive legislative environment" to tackle it.
"To break through stigma and discrimination we have to think beyond our usual boundaries," he said.
Piot said that HIV stigma was the result of a "powerful combination of shame and fear" and that ppopulations which reacted to the disease with blame or abuse forced the epidemic underground, "creating the ideal conditions for HIV to spread".
"The only way of making progress against the epidemic is to replace shame with solidarity and fear with hope," he said.
Discrimination and HIV/AIDS is among issues being discussed by delegates from more than 160 UN member states at the racism conference here.
The global conference is the first since the end of apartheid in South Africa, which has the world's highest number of HIV cases -- 4.7 million at the end of 2000.
High-profile tussles between pharmaceutical giants and developing countries over the price of patented anti-AIDS drugs has led some countries to take their own action to try to meet the demand for treatments for their HIV/AIDS-infected populations.
Nigeria said earlier Wednesday it would launch a treatment trial with imported generic antiretroviral drugs after negotiating greatly reduced prices with two Indian companies compared with the cost of patented drugs produced by Western pharmaceuticals companies.
In April, the world's big pharmaceuticals manufacturers abandoned a landmark lawsuit against the South African government, allowing it to buy generic anti-AIDS drugs without paying the high prices demanded by Western companies.
Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche has agreed to cut the price of its anti-AIDS drug Nelfinavir to avert a threat to its Brazilian patent on the drug, after the Brazilian government threatened to manufacture a generic version if the price for the patented version was not cut.
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