AKEL on World AIDS/HIV Day

 

Science moves forward, state and society lag behind

I December 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

For several years now, advances in science and medicine have made it possible in the foreseeable future to rid humanity of HIV, since when HIV-positive people follow antiretroviral treatment they do not transmit the virus in any way, which indeed becomes undetectable in their bodies. At the same time, medicine can now guarantee HIV-positive people a normal life expectancy and a comparable quality of life to the rest of the population.

Despite scientific progress, social prejudice and unscientific perceptions of the virus and HIV-positive people remain deeply rooted in our country. Our country’s failure in the indicators on the quality of life of HIV-positive people only raises social and moral issues for the Cypriot state and, at the same time, undermines even the medical progress achieved in our country in the fight against HIV, since stigma discourages HIV-positive people from seeking or continuing medication.

AKEL has taken numerous initiatives in Parliament seeking to provide solutions to a number of problems faced by HIV-positive people in Cyprus and on the occasion of World AIDS/HIV Day our Party reiterates that it expects tangible progress on specific issues in the immediate future:

1. Full staffing of the Gregorian Clinic and improvement of its infrastructure,
2. Expansion of prescription of antiretroviral drugs and their administration from all cities,
3. Increase of the allowance for HIV-positive persons, who have to cope with the financial and professional consequences of social stigmatisation with 350 euros,
4. Elimination of all anachronistic provisions in laws, decrees and administrative practices that victimise HIV-positive people and keep the state in 1980’s concepts of the virus.
5. Full support for voluntary social organisations that have undertaken much of the enlightenment and work that the state should be doing in the fight against HIV,
6. Strengthening HIV/AIDS prevention programmes.