After countries like United States, Brunei, China, Iraq, South Korea, Moldavia, Russia and Saudi Arabia, perhaps it is turn of Australia to embrace discriminating policy against HIV immigrants, as Australian Prime Minister John Howard has also called for HIV migrant ban.
In his statement, he said that Australia should refuse to allow migrants or refugees with HIV to enter the country. This remark from Australian prime minister, John Howard has come like a bolt from the blue for millions of HIV patients, living all round the world. More worrying is the fact that this proposal as come at such time when AIDS is increasing worldwide.
This call from Howard has exasperated AIDS experts all round the world but in this series, exasperation, kicked off by African AIDS experts, seems to be more vehement, as representatives from various organization from across Africa attending on HIV-AIDS workshop in Dar-es-Salaam accused Mr Howard to over-reacting and called on him to reconsider.
Actually, this is not for the first time when John Howard has come up with such tough stand on immigration because earlier too he had banned immigration of patients with TB. However, taking similar stand against HIV-infected immigrants doesn’t sound sensible because HIV infection can never be compared with tuberculosis, as tuberculosis is contagious and airborne disease while HIV is not contagious but transmissible.
No doubt, rising rate of HIV infected people in Australia, which has rose by 41% between 2000 and 2005 has tempted Howard to come up with such proposal but in doing so, it seems that he has looked upon this problem in quite a constricted manner. And this proposal has come out undraping his ideology to treat HIV/AIDS as ‘some one else’s problem’. Besides, it has goaded out some very radical questions like:
1. Are proclamations to fight AIDS globally, merely hollow slogans?
2. Is the ideology that treats AIDS as ‘some one else’s problem’, not a stint in fight against HIV/AIDS?
3. Is the force, being injected into fight against HIV/AIDS, adequate or not?
These are some such questions, which need to be answered earnestly; otherwise, fight against HIV/AIDS may turn direction-less. In addition, efforts being made to crush the hood of HIV/AIDS may also come to naught, if we go on treating HIV/AIDS as ‘someone else’s problem’.
Via: Topix
