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FROM THE FIELD

One of Africa's taboos
21 Oct 2009 16:26:00 GMT
 Sarah Wheeler, International HIV/AIDS Alliance

Website: Website: http://www.aidsalliance.org

Background

•  Health and diseases

•  AIDS in Africa

•  AIDS pandemic

•  Chikungunya

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Talib Aboi stands in a small courtyard building in Juba, south Sudan. He talks to a group of men about HIV, telling them how to protect themselves by using a condom.

He is a courageous, pragmatic man, who is willing to tackle a subject that in Sudan and across Africa is taboo - HIV prevention for men who have sex with men (MSM).

"If we don't teach about HIV all our other work will mean nothing. For the children who came to adolescence during the war they didn't become the people expected by the community. They don't know what it is to be good, what it is to be bad."

Aboi is the humanitarian director of Mubadaroon a development organisation, supported by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance. He has been working in development for over ten years.

"People are not coming out about men who have sex with men. We are learning that older people are infecting young boys. We want more information but most people are illiterate so we need materials that they can use. We need to do something specifically for men who have sex with men.

"There are so many sad stories. When I ask them to share, they shed tears," said Aboi.

Sudan is not the only country in Africa where men who have sex with men face stigma and discrimination. Across Africa homosexuality is illegal but this approach is negatively affecting the approach to tackling HIV in a continent that has the greatest burden of AIDS anywhere in the world.

Studies show increasing rates of HIV among men who have sex with men - over 20% in some countries. In coastal Kenya the HIV prevalence rate of men who have sex with men is as high as 43% . The battle to stem the increase in HIV infections among this population is failing.

Homophobia, imprisonment and condemnation, with some African leaders even calling for men who have sex with men to be beheaded, means that the men fear reprisals which stop them from finding out their HIV status and accessing the help they need.

Leaders across Africa claim that homosexuality is not within their culture, that it doesn't exist and where it is seen it's a result of Western influence. However in Kenya the Government has recognised the gap in the HIV response for vulnerable groups such as men who have sex with men and included their needs as a priority in the recently developed HIV/AIDS national strategy, allocating funding for appropriate HIV programmes.

The consequence is a series of gross human rights violations and few resources on HIV prevention, treatment and care targeting men who have sex with men and those who have female partners.

It doesn't have to be this way. In some of the more conservative north- African countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon and Tunisia men who sex with men HIV prevention activities have been successfully running since 2006.

Alliance's partners reached more than 17,000 men who have sex with men last year through awareness raising and prevention work. Advocacy initiatives with local and political leaders are conducted and specifically tailored materials have been developed and distributed in French and Arabic. Importantly, there has been an investment in building up the confidence of local groups to work with the men in a collaborative manner.

Alan Brotherton is a Senior Policy Officer at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance. "In Africa we see high levels of stigma and discrimination and this means men are not protecting themselves, their partners or their wives.

"UNAIDS have acknowledged that urgent works needs to be done to prevent the spread of HIV. There is a clear public health rationale for HIV prevention among men who have sex with men," says Brotherton.

The Global HIV Prevention Working Group has estimated that HIV prevention services reach only 9% of men who have sex with men. Where information was reported access to HIV services for men who have sex with men in Africa are around just 12% compared to 43% in Latin America.

"There is a desperate need for national AIDS responses to involve men who have sex with men. Pretending that they don't exist is not going to resolve the AIDS crisis in Africa," Brotherton said.




[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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Last updated:Wed Oct 21 16:32:22 2009