- Date
- November 2009
Since its publication in the January 2009 issue of The Lancet, an article by World Health Organization officials (“Universal Voluntary HIV Testing with Immediate Antiretroviral Therapy as a Strategy for Elimination of HIV Transmission: A Mathematical Model”) has been the subject of much debate among activists and health experts. In particular, the article provided a trigger for people to express deeply held concerns on the lack of attention to human rights issues in the proposed model and, more broadly, in national responses to HIV; the slow pace of efforts to reach universal access to HIV treatment, care, and support; and how and under what conditions can and should antiretroviral therapy (ART) be promoted for prevention purposes.
In response, hundreds of human rights and HIV/AIDS organizations worldwide drafted the "Civil Society Statement on ART as Prevention: Scaling Down HIV Requires Scaling Up Human Rights, Testing, and Treatment." The statement urges UN bodies, donors, and researchers to be mindful that people highly vulnerable to HIV remain unable to gain access to HIV testing or treatment as a result of many human rights violations, as well as clinical and systemic barriers. Research models that do not adequately consider and address these barriers do a disservice to the important goal of making ART available to all as both prevention and treatment.
The statement was delivered this month to the participants of the WHO consultation on ART as prevention.