Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - 16 Aug 95
Opening a three-day conference, participants said AIDS victims have to fight not only the malady, but ignorance and discrimination as well.
``In a way we are the modern lepers, the ones many don't want to get close to,'' said Patrick Levy, 29, an HIV-infected, French-born Israeli who chairs his nation's AIDS Task Force.
Levy is one of 350 social workers from 51 countries attending the first International Conference on HIV-AIDS and Social Work.
Delegates said they are seeking ways to change attitudes and make life easier for people with AIDS. Several delegates are HIV-positive.
``There is no cure ... so there is an urgent need for social work to make victims' life better,'' said Kirsten Madsen, working with an AIDS hotline in Copenhagen.
An estimated 19.5 million people in the world are infected with AIDS, conference organizers said.
Delegates said that while attitudes had improved in some parts of the world, AIDS-infected people in other areas were being excluded from their families or jailed because of their infections. Others have been fired from their jobs, lost friends and had their children banned from child-care centers.
``We are either tagged homosexuals, prostitutes, drug addicts or criminals,'' said Sue Newman, 45, an HIV-infected mother of three children who works for the same group as Levy.
``In Israel, an HIV-infected woman was ordered to have an abortion because she was told she had no rights to give birth,'' she said.
In Pakistan, some AIDS patients have been burned alive, and an infected woman was saved at the last minute from being stoned to death, said Shouket Ali of the Pakistan AIDS Prevention Society.
``Things start to improve now, but many still have a degrading feeling about AIDS victims,'' he said.
According to organizers, about 60 countries have immigration regulations related to the virus. In some cases, restrictions bar AIDS victims from entering the country.
Conference Chairman Henning Jensen of Denmark said the world invests about $2.72 billion every year in AIDS-related medical research.
``This effort is important,'' he said, ``But globally seen, AIDS is as much a social problem as it is a medical problem.''
Copyright 1995/The Associated Press. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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