Inter Press Service - June 25, 2001
Néfer Muñoz

Psychologist Rita Arauz, whose support for people with HIV/AIDS has won the recognition of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), told IPS that she is deeply concerned about the discrimination these people suffer in developing countries.

"In many poor countries, women with AIDS do not receive adequate treatment while they are in the hospital to give birth," she pointed out.

The expert indicated that appropriate treatment for babies born to mothers who are HIV-positive can help to prevent them from becoming infected.

Arauz, who has been a human rights activist in Nicaragua for three decades, has spent the last 15 years dedicated to defending the rights of HIV-positive individuals and is considered an authority on the matter in Central America.

Last year, she and three other activists won the international "Race against Poverty" prize, which the UNDP awards to those who stand out in the fight to improve the standard of living of the world's peoples.

"The medical attention provided a pregnant woman with HIV or AIDS must be specialised, and it is recommended that the baby be delivered by caesarean section," said Arauz. This procedure reduces the possibility that the infant will contract the virus to eight percent.

In comparison, the exchange of blood and other body fluids that occurs during a vaginal birth increases the risk of infection to 30 or 40 percent.

Data from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) indicate that up until 2000, AIDS affected 16.4 million women worldwide, 1.3 million of whom died that year.

UNAIDS also reports that 2.2 million women were added to the list of people who contracted the virus during the last year.

"The hospitals in poor countries must be made aware of the necessity of providing differentiated treatment to pregnant women with AIDS," Arauz emphasised.

She commented that hospitals that order a vaginal birth in this situation are committing a double human rights violation: against the rights of the mother and against the rights of the newborn.

In 1990, Arauz founded the non-governmental organisation Nimehuatzin in Nicaragua dedicated to providing support to women and men with HIV/AIDS. Nimehuatzin, an indigenous N huatl word that means "we rise up for a noble cause," also engages in campaigns that attempt to erase the social stigma associated with the disease.

Arauz is concerned that the discrimination against men, women and children with HIV/AIDS is causing a vicious circle in poor countries.

"Discrimination is high and it occurs at all social levels. Generally, if a person goes to a public hospital and is found to be HIV positive, it is common that he or she will be told that the hospital will no longer provide them with medical attention," she said.

It is a vicious circle, explained the expert, because infected individuals tend to keep silent about the illness for fear of suffering discrimination at work, in the neighbourhood and at home.

In hiding their HIV-positive status, they often do not take all necessary health precautions, thus endangering others, who could become infected.

Figures from the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) indicate that the AIDS pandemic is continually expanding in the Americas.

There are already more than 2.7 million people who are HIV- positive in the Western Hemisphere. Nearly one million are in the United States and Canada, and more than 1.7 million in Latin America, of which 390,000 are found in the Caribbean.

It is also estimated that in the Americas 600 to 700 new HIV infections occur each day. Approximately 100,000 people died last year from AIDS-related causes in this region.

The Caribbean has a high HIV infection rate, calculated at 1 out of every 50 people, most of whom were infected through unprotected heterosexual relations. Haiti reports the highest infection rates.

Arauz told IPS that one of her greatest worries is that individuals with HIV/AIDS in poor countries "will continue to hide the truth because of the intense discrimination they face."

She said it is turning into an invisible problem in that many governments in the developing South are ignoring the true social and humanitarian impacts of HIV/AIDS.

The trend in Central America today is the widespread and rapid increase in the transmission of the virus, a problem that affects women in particular.

"In poor countries, we need greater political will and more support for people who have contracted the disease because it is a fact that the virus progresses," Arauz pointed out.

The rights of individuals with HIV/AIDS, and particularly those of infected women, are being discussed at a three-day United Nations Special Session on AIDS, June 25-27, the first-ever special session the international body has dedicated to a single disease. (END/IPS/tra-so/nms/dm-ff/ld/01)
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