AIDS Conference Brings Together Diverse Community | Voice of America - English
The 17th International AIDS Conference got underway in Mexico City Sunday and will continue through Friday. Along with government officials, private non-profit groups and medical researchers, the conference has drawn activists and representatives of grassroots groups from around the world.
While theformal sessions continue inside the conference hall, most of theactivists andgroups with a specific agenda congregate under a hugetented area called the Global Village. Among the groups represented arenational AIDS foundations, various organizations that work withHIV-infected people and their families, and advocates of variousprograms that could help prevent the virus from spreading. Oneof the more vocal groups is a coalition of sex workers and sex workerunions from various countries. They advocate safer sex practices, theuse of condoms and legalization of their trade as ways of combating thedisease. Rachel is a sex worker who came here from Australia,where her profession is legal and subject to taxes and regulations. Shesays involving sex workers in government health programs is better thanstigmatizing them as potential disease carriers. "Sex workers are partof the solution, we are not the problem. Like we always say, thereshould be nothing about us without us. If people are really seriousabout combating HIV and want to increase the levels of education andadherence to best sex practices, sex workers need to be included at alllevels," she said. Rachel says countries that legalizeprostitution, which she prefers to call sex work, have better healthconditions and are better able to control the spread of AIDS and othersexually-transmitted diseases. One of the most important toolsin preventing AIDS from being transmitted through sexual activity isthe condom. Caitlin Delaney works with a Canada-based organization thatpromotes the use of condoms through an animated cartoon featuring threecondoms called the Three Amigos. The video is available in some 40languages, with each one tailored to the cultural sensitivities of theintended audience. Delaney says the conference here in Mexicohas provided an opportunity to work with other groups seeking the sameprevention goal. "The value of coming to Mexico for us is that we areable to network with people whom we would never be in contact with.Here we get to talk with scientists and researchers and share what weare doing and what they are doing," Delaney said. Delaney sayspeople from some countries are more open than others to the humorousapproach her video utilizes. Such campaigns have been criticized byconservatives around the world who believe promoting the use of condomsis a way of promoting sexual promiscuity. But Delaney says the realityof AIDS and its devastating toll provides urgency to efforts to promoteprevention. "Until there is a cure, prevention is the only way to dealwith not getting AIDS and also, too, it is important that when you areinfected that you still work with prevention and the best way to dothat is with a condom," she said. Health professionals attending theconference agree that the use of condoms is an effective preventiontool. Studies show that condoms have up to 90 percent efficacy inpreventing the transmission of the HIV virus. Jose LladosComenge has worked in public health projects in Latin America andAfrica for Population Services International, a non-profit organizationthat promotes health education. He says no one should assume that theyare 100 percent protected by a condom. "A condom can break or peoplecan not use them properly, but if you use them correctly and use themall the time, you are well protected against AIDS and other sexuallytransmitted diseases," he said. Llados Comenge says one of thebiggest problems he has seen in developing nations is inconsistent useof condoms. He says a sex worker who insists that her clients usecondoms, for example, may not be as insistent with a boyfriend orhusband. Participants in this conference say coming togetherin one place for a week of discussions and sharing of informationprovides mutual encouragement and new approaches to combating thescourge of AIDS.