Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - November 27, 2003
Shigeru Omi, WHO's regional director for the Western Pacific, said the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS - often linked to cultural or religious beliefs or lack of education - sometimes leads to denial of the problem, heightening the risk of the disease spreading further.
To raise public awareness, the world health body will focus on the need to eliminate the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS - and the discrimination against its sufferers - when it marks World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.
Organizers of a two-day regional meeting on improving HIV patients' access to anti-retroviral therapy, which opened here Thursday, invited several people living with HIV/AIDS as advisers.
"These people living with HIV are the critical players in our joint fight against HIV/AIDS," Omi said. "They can ... provide peer support for other people living with HIV/AIDS and also they can plan and monitor and evaluate national and local policy in terms of HIV prevention and care and treatment."
Heng Sok Rithy, a Cambodian doctor with HIV, told reporters he sees less stigma and discrimination against AIDS patients today compared with three or five years ago. He has helped to established a support network that encourages discussion of the issue.
But WHO said a recent study of wealthy patients in Kampala, Uganda, found that fear, discrimination and loss of confidentiality deterred some AIDS victims from continuing treatment. A general climate of fear often leads people to not take an AIDS test, even if they have taken risks, the study showed.
Omi said HIV/AIDS isn't spreading as fast in the Asia-Pacific region as in other parts of the world, especially Africa, but that the situation could worsen if nothing is done to intensify the fight against it.
"The disease can spread further because stigmatized groups tend to become more hidden and opportunities for giving them information and treatment are lost," he said.
The 37 countries and areas comprising the WHO's Western Pacific region currently account for 1.4 million of the world's 40 million HIV/AIDS cases.
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