Dear Prime Minister…Stop the Discrimination!

Prime Minister Gordon Brown
10 Downing Street,
London, SW 1 2A

Dear Honourable Prime Minister Mr. Gordon Brown,

See reply below See article about this letter in the Kampala Monitor newspaper by Susan K. Muyuyi (Search for “Gordon Brown”).

We the Sub –Saharan Africans, Gay men and Drug users in United Kingdom wish to register our condemnation of the deliberate discrimination against us from the rest of the community by only targeting us and testing us for HIV.

We feel that we are subjected to unnecessary HIV testing which is based on discrimination only and not on medical grounds.

As early as 1984 only Gay men, drug users and haemophiliacs were the only ones tested for HIV until the late eighties when the heterosexuals mainly from Uganda were tested for the virus and found to be positive. Later in the early in the nineties more Africans continued to suffer from the discrimination, stigma and prejudice while in hospitals here in U.K tested for HIV until today. The new Eastern Europeans, black British and Asians are also now on the high risk group list.

It is assumed that the entire continent of Africa and its people are infected by the HIV virus. For that reason all Sub-Saharan Africans here in U.K are subjected to a biased HIV test that is not based on medical ground.

We genuinely feel that our stated community is branded HIV high risk for the wrong reasons and leaves us suffering the consequences.

Many of us, who have experienced the untold horrible stories and treatments by the medical industry, ask you to intervene and help us from those persecuting us by calling us infected and diseased, pushing us for unnecessary HIV testing that leads us to toxic drugs that don’t help us or treat us at all.

• To condemn the targeting and unnecessary HIV tests for the gay men, drug users and Sub-Saharan Africans.
• To stop the harassment of the high risk groups as it is known to the medical institutions in U.K.
• To impress on the government and the NHS to stop classifying us as HIV high risk group of people with HIV.
• To immediately reconsider the HIV test and its validity.
• To intervene in the outcome of those sentenced to prison for apparently infecting other while knowing they are HIV positive themselves. This is because we believe the HIV test itself is not valid and should not be used to prosecute innocent people.
• To recognise the rights of human all human beings in U.K disregarding whether they are in one of the above-mentioned groups.

Yours truly,

 

Winfred Nakalanzi-Mwebe

Thank you for your letter of 18 January to Gordon Brown about the targeting of gay men, people from African communities and injecting drug users for HIV testing and other health promotion work. Unfortunately, due to the amount of correspondence he receives, Mr Brown is unable to respond to every letter personally. Your letter has been passed to the Department of Health for reply.

The Department is very concerned that you feel that such targeting is discriminatory and stigmatising, as its purpose is the exact opposite. The sole reason for targeting these populations for HIV testing is that for at least the last 15 years data from the Health Protection Agency has shown that these groups are most at risk from HIV transmission.

It is precisely because these groups are disproportionately affected by HIV that the Department has targeted our limited resources to redressing the balance.

Research undertaken by African Research organizations working here continues to show that, compared to other HIV populations in the UK, black Africans present late for testing for HIV, thus suffering the disadvantages of late induction to treatment with a much greater risk of severe HIV disease and earlier death.

The Department funds the African HIV Policy Network specifically to develop HIV prevention programmes and campaigns, in collaboration with local community organisations, to help address the stigma and discrimination suffered by people from African communities, so that the messages are culturally sensitive and appropriate. They can be contacted at www.ahpn.org.uk.

All HIV testing in the UK is entirely voluntary, and it is certainly not the case that any pressure is exerted to compel people from African communities to be tested for the sake of it.

Since 1996, the introduction of widely available anti-retroviral therapies in the treatment of HIV have transformed the lives of those who are HIV positive, allowing them to resume a normal and fulfilling life.

The Department is committed to making sure that these benefits are shared by all who are eligible, so that everyone benefits equally from these medical advances.

On the issue of criminal prosecutions for the reckless transmission of HIV, the Department of Health is not responsible for the use of existing laws for this purpose. Prosecutions so far have been few, and the Crown Prosecution Service is in the process of revising guidance for prosecutors to ensure better consistency. Voluntary organisations including the Terrence Higgins Trust, the African HIV Policy Network _and the National AIDS Trust have all contributed their comments on this guidance.

I do hope this reassures you that the targeting of people from African communities is intended to redress the existing imbalance in the accessing of HIV testing and treatment services.

Yours sincerely,

(Signature)

Sarah Brimson
Customer Service Centre
Department of Health