Church of Scotland Working for End to HIV Stigma

The Church of Scotland's HIV/AIDS Project has called on the General Assembly to recognise that stigma and discrimination continue to act as barriers to effective HIV prevention and care.

In its report to this year's General Assembly, the HIV/AIDS Project will provide an overview of HIV around the world, including the rising number of people living with HIV and the parallel rise in the number dying from Aids. An estimated 4.3 million adults and children worldwide were infected in 2006, a 10 per cent increase over 2004 and globally more women than ever before are now living with HIV.

During a two-week visit to Scotland to coincide with World Aids Day 2006, Kenyan Pastor Patricia Sawo, herself a HIV sufferer, sent out an uncompromising message to the church in Scotland: "People don't die of AIDS - they die of stigma," she told delegates at the recent Keeping the Promise: Faith, Health and HIV conference in Glasgow.

"We must address the faults in society which feed HIV," she added.

Access to treatment and care has greatly increased in recent years, with dramatic results in some places. Through the expanded provision of antiretroviral treatment an estimated two million life years have been gained since 2002 in low- and middle-income countries.

With young people accounting for up to 40 per cent of new HIV infections in some regions, the Church of Scotland said the future course of the world's HIV epidemics hinges on the behaviours young people adopt or maintain.

Scotland saw a 14 per cent reduction in newly identified cases of HIV in 2006 from the peak of 405 the previous year. However, health officials continue to be concerned about the underlying high incidence among men who have sex with men and the public health challenge this poses, as well as ensuring that all infected persons needing specialist treatment and care receive it.

In response to these needs the HIV/AIDS Project made grants of nearly £120,000 in 2006 to partner organisations in Scotland and worldwide, a number of them in southern India, which was visited recently by the HIV/AIDS Project Co-ordinator, Nigel Pounde. The General Assembly will also hear of his attendance at the 16th International Aids Conference in Toronto last August and the contribution of Christian and other faith communities to breaking the barriers of stigma and discrimination around the world.

The report concludes with the commitment of the HIV/AIDS Project to encouraging the Kirk and its partners to face the tensions between religion and public health.