Report reveals regulations for HIV+ travellers

6th December 2007 11:30
Antonio Fabrizio

The European AIDS Treatment Group has published the 2007 Quick reference: travel and residence regulations for people living with HIV and AIDS.

The publication, at its sixth edition, updates the information about all the requirements and regulations in every country for travellers living with AIDS.

It is designed to help people working in AIDS organisations and contains some of the most recent requirements adopted in several countries.

The report says that "being able to stay in foreign countries without restriction is something more or less taken for granted by many people living in Europe today.

"Yet in the majority of the world's countries, people with HIV/AIDS are refused that right."

193 countries were included in the survey. In 106 countries there are special regulations, and 90 countries with restricted residence regulations implemented mandatory HIV screening. There are currently 13 countries that bar people living with AIDS: Armenia, Brunei, China, Iraq, Qatar, South Korea, Libya, Moldova, Oman, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and the USA. Some European countries, including the UK, France, the Netherlands, and Italy, have no restrictions at all. Other countries such as Austria, Greece, Belgium, Spain and Germany have no controls of restrictions for EU nationals, but require a health certificate for non-EU citizens who are staying for a longer period. For some countries, such as Afghanistan, Bahamas, Grenada, Liberia, Mali, Mauritius, and Somalia, no information was available. Some Asian and Middle East countries have had very bad performances. According to the report there were cases where migrants died in jail without treatment waiting to return home. There were visa problems. "Some countries prefer not to have their citizens back if they can avoid it."

The publication is available in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian and can be can be found online here.

Source:Pinknews.co.uk

Aids ad breaks Italy taboo over word 'condom'

The word "condom" is to be uttered for the first time in an advertisement to raise Aids awareness in Italy, breaking a bizarre taboo in the Catholic country.

Since the spread of HIV/Aids started in the 1980s, the Italian government has run health campaigns about the disease, some of which have featured pictures of condoms.

But they have always omitted using the "C" word.

Movie director Francesca Archibugi, filming the TV advert at a pharmacy in Rome's Fiumicino airport on Thursday, described the new advert as "a triumph against taboo".

The Catholic Church equates promotion of condoms to fostering immoral and hedonistic lifestyles.

The prudish treatment of the word contrasts with the risque nature of Italian advertising and media, where gameshows and adverts routinely make sexual references, or feature scantily clad women, often for purely decorative effective.

Although the sale of condoms is far more widespread in Italy than many other parts of Europe - they can, for example be bought from street vending machines - slogans until now have been restricted to phrases such as: "Protect your love!".

Archibugi's campaign is unlikely to impress the Vatican, which teaches that fidelity within heterosexual marriage, chastity and abstinence are the best ways to combat Aids.

The director, famed in Italy for films such films as "Shooting the Moon", said it was important to get the message across in Italy where there 4000 people every year are infected with HIV/Aids.

"The true dangers are never talked about - there's a moralistic facade which, when uncovered, reveals great ignorance".

Source: Stuff.co.nz