THE INCREASING spread of HIV/ AIDS needs addressing. It is devastating communities and mutilating families, especially in some African countries. With the current increase of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, there should be continued campaigns on prevention. We have a very dangerous situation at the moment, where many young women and men just do not care and have unprotected sex with many different partners. As sexually transmitted infections facilitate the trans-mission of HIV, it is possible that the rise
in these may have played a significant part in the increase in HIV among gay men. All sexually transmitted infections have increased in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. That is why I asked the government a few months ago whether there should be a national service framework for this growing problem.

Something has to be done. People across the world did not take the advice that one partner was the safest option. The recent case of the man from Middlesbrough, who had come from Africa and knowingly infected three women and has now been given a 10-year prison sentence, might make a few people think. Should there not be clear legal guidelines, stating that it is a criminal offence to knowingly infect people with the HIV virus? I think just putting it down as grievous bodily harm is not clear enough, especially for some people coming from abroad who may not know what GBH is. It should be clearly associated with the infection of HIV.

There is concern that the removal of dedicated funding for treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS in recent years will place investment in services over the past 20 years at risk. There should be a commitment to ongoing funding, not one-offs, to ensure the availability of appropriate treatment and care for those eligible.
 
A very unfortunate situation has arisen at the Mildmay Hospital in Hackney. This is a dedicated hospital for people with HIV/AIDS, giving respite, rehabilitation and hospice care. It founded a family centre for children and parents living with HIV/AIDS who need support. The children had good play facilities and lunch, while the mothers had rest and treatment. The family care centre ceased to operate in 2002. Health authorities are no longer prepared to fund family admissions, arguing that this is not something they do with other illnesses. Health authorities withdrew funding for children infected or affected by HIV, on the basis that this is not a health issue. The Mildmay is concerned about the withdrawal of HIV-specific funding. It is being increasingly financially squeezed, as PCTs no longer give HIV priority.

As the Mildmay Mission Hospital does missionary work, it has two thriving AIDS centres in Africa: one in Uganda and one in Zimbabwe. Should we not be looking after our own people at home, as well as helping others? When I think of the smiling little faces of these children enjoying their play facilities and lunch, it makes me sad to think that some of them will now be isolated at home while their mothers lie resting, without the support that was so needed, and which the Mildmay was able to give them.

In 1986 at the start of HIV, the then government really went to town with its warning campaigns and it has been felt by many people who were around at that time that their advertising succeeded in reducing HIV and also in reducing sexually transmitted diseases generally. There was growing support from TV companies, radio and newspapers, most of which supported the campaign and hopefully they would do so again. The BBC World Service has been extremely good and still campaigns in several countries, but many people think the problem has gone away in the UK.

Today the epicentre is sub-Saharan Africa, where last year alone there were two million deaths. One prediction that we can make with absolute certainty is that this death toll will continue to rise. There are somewhere between 25 and 30 million people living with HIV in that area and it is estimated that three to four million of them urgently need treatment today. We know that the vast majority of them, about 98 per cent, will not receive such treatment. Anti-retroviral drugs may have reduced deaths in the West – al-though it should be emphasised that they have not provided a cure – but in Africa such treatment is for a tiny minority.

However, there is a profound danger in believing that Africa is alone in facing this crisis. No government anywhere in the world can say that it will never happen in its country. At this moment, HIV is taking hold in a range of countries where a few years ago ministers were assuring us that they had no problem. In India, although the official estimate is that 4.5 million people are living with HIV today, the real number is likely to be six to seven million. Experts in the field say that the Indian epidemic could be devastating unless massive efforts are launched now. In China we know that blood transfusion errors and the use of contaminated equipment by drug-users has helped to lead to a total of at least one million living with HIV. Nearer to home, an estimated one million in the Russian Federation are living with HIV. At first, transmission was by contaminated equipment of drug users, but it is now by mainstream heterosexual sex. Drug use is also the entry point elsewhere, as in some countries of central Europe, where it is reported that heroin can sometimes be as cheap as alcohol.

There are around one million people living with HIV in the United States and some 600,000 in western Europe, including at least 50,000 in the United Kingdom. The latest figures for the UK were the worst on record. The number of new diagnoses has doubled since only 1998 and, in my view, the government has done too little to counter this rise and far too little to combat the startling increase in sexual disease generally.

The statistics of HIV/AIDS are staggering: 60 million people have been infect-ed with HIV since the late 970s. Twenty-nine million deaths so far, 40 million people living with the virus, five million new infections in 2003. Fourteen thou-sand people die from HIV every day, 570 people die an hour, and nine people die every minute. Three million died of AIDS in 2003, five people died every minute, 342 every hour – and so it goes on.

There are fast-growing epidemics in the Russian Federation. Potentially the highest increase is in China and India.

Last year, a parliamentary delegation from the HIV/AIDS group from India visited us in Parliament. It was good to meet them and to hear that, like us, they had a parliamentary group. With more then 4.6 million HIV-infected people, India has the second-highest rate of HIV infection in the world after South Africa. There is much ignorance and many people do not know they are HIV positive.

HIV and TB are strongly linked, especially in the Russian Federation. This is why countries should all support the global fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria across the world. Treatment with ARVs is one of the most fundamental issues with the rise in HIV/AIDS in Europe. The Moscow declaration of the World Health Organisation in Europe, entitled Prison Health as Part of Public Health, calls for prison and public health services to work together “to ensure that harm reduction becomes the guiding principle on the prevention of HIV/AIDS”.

Perhaps we should follow the American example and have a European coordinator for HIV/AIDS who would not only bring the European effort together but also work to raise the resources so that at least we matched the American effort.

Many people and organisations from Britain are helping and giving support to developing countries, and that’s good. But we must not neglect our own people, living in our own communities. HIV/AIDS is a horrible condition. It complicates lives. The difficulties regarding confidentiality can make communication difficult. There are many problems that can arise for people whose health deteriorates – such as housing needs, social care, arranging meals, visits to hospitals and companionship if people live alone, to mention just a few.

Children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS experience a wide array of problems. In addition to the psycho-social distress of losing one or both parents, they may also lack food, shelter, clothing or healthcare. They may be forced to drop out of school or required to care for chronically ill adults or younger sib-lings. They may face discrimination, abuse or exploitation. Deprived of parental guidance and protection, they may themselves become vulnerable to HIV infection.

HIV is causing so many problems, it is encouraging when one hears that governments have accepted there is a problem with HIV in their country. Governments from all over the world must do all they can to prevent the spread of this deadly infection. Twenty-nine million people have died of AIDS so far, with three million dying last year. As most of the deaths occur in young adults, some 14 million children have lost at least one parent to HIV/AIDS. It is estimated that by 2010, 20 million children will have lost a parent from AIDS. That orphaning in highly affected countries may cause children to enter the labour market before they have completed school and exacerbate the problems of child labour. Financial help needs to be given to families where one or both parents have died of HIV/AIDS.

The low status of girls and women in many traditional societies in Africa, and especially in Asia, has led to them being sold into prostitution, which in turn spreads HIV/AIDS faster and further in those countries. In India, where young women join the sex industry in metropolitan cities from poor rural communities, including from Nepal, HIV spreads to their home when they return with the disease. India now has between 4.58 million to six million living with HIV.

HIV/AIDS is the biggest threat to global development and stability in our time – not only in Africa but also across the world. It is no longer simply a health issue; it is a human rights issue that cuts across all aspects of social, political and economic life. Many people visit Britain and are surprised to find so little public awareness and information about the need for preventing HIV/AIDS. Our government needs to take the lead and help motivate many people to be more careful and protect their lives.