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BMJ No 7124 Volume 316 Letters Saturday 3 January 1998 Humanitarian issues Young people affected by HIV must be supported year in, year out Editor, The increase in cases of HIV infection worldwide is reported to have included 600,000 new cases in children in 1997(1); the theme of the most recent World AIDS Day was children. The danger with this theme, and the day, is that we may isolate both - as if HIV matters on only one day a year and children with HIV infection are separate from the rest of the population. The truth is that HIV infection is with us all year round, across the world. The UN report shows that, worldwide, over 30 million people have HIV infection. Most do not have access to clean water, adequate housing, or the basic health care that might be taken for granted in developed countries. Children live in households where whole generations are being wiped out by starvation and war. People fleeing from such situations may find themselves ostracised and penniless on the streets of richer countries such as our own, seeking asylum while benefits are removed. In Britain, children and young people living in households in which somebody is infected with HIV are not immune to all the other pressures. Such households may, for example, experience poverty, unemployment, injecting drug use, and poor housing and are then subject to the pressures on community care budgets and unequal access to new treatments for HIV infection. We have to overcome the inequalities in the provision of health and social care, in Britain and worldwide, if people with HIV infection are to receive equal care to that received by everyone else. At the same time, the messages given to children and young people by politicians and the press need to encourage equality and a positive outlook on life. In Britain we need to see positive moves: the introduction of an equal age of consent at age 16, repeal of section 28 of the Local Government Act (which forbids the portrayal of homosexuality as 'normal'), and withdrawal of the proposal to make the transmission of HIV a criminal offence (which would discourage young people from coming forward for HIV testing, advice, or treatment). If we want to support children and young people affected by HIV we have to make sure that we don't make them a separate issue, special just for one day. We must end the discrimination associated with HIV; a good start would be to remove the barriers, such as those related to gay sexuality and represented by the cuts in benefit brought in by the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996. John Nicholson Secretary, HIV Alliance on behalf of the seven member organisations of HIV Alliance HIV Alliance, 75 Ardwick Green North, Manchester M12 6FX Neil Gerrard Chair, All Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS Evan Harris Liberal Democrat spokesperson on health House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA References 1 UNAIDS/World Health Organisation. Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Geneva: UNAIDS, 1997. Home | Current issue | Past issues | Classified ads | Career Focus | Feedback Collections | About this site | About the BMJ | BMA | Medline