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UN urges Goa to end plans for HIV tests on couples By Jo Johnson in New Delhi Published: March 27 2006 19:51 | Last updated: March 27 2006 19:51 United NationsThe head of the United Nations Aids programme in India on Monday urged the state of Goa to abandon controversial plans to force marrying couples to undergo compulsory testing for HIV. ADVERTISEMENT The legislation would make Goa the first state in India, which is estimated to have more than 5m people with HIV/Aids, to require premarital testing. Dayanand Narvekar, the state's health minister, has said the law would be amended in the July session. Such is the stigma associated with the disease and so costly are the drugs used for treating it that few people voluntarily come forward for testing in India, which may soon overtake South Africa as the country with the largest number of HIV cases. "Ninety per cent of people with HIV in India are unaware of their status, but compulsion is always counter-productive," said Denis Broun, UNAIDS country director, in an interview. Critics of such legislation say it would violate privacy, stigmatise entire families and create a black market in false HIV-test results. Compulsory HIV testing before marriage has been proposed in several Indian states but, so far, never enacted. Calls for mandatory testing are a common recourse for politicians wishing to create the impression of a resolute stand against the epidemic. Dormant provisions of Goan law still permit the forced testing and isolation of people suspected of being HIV positive. The introduction of mandatory testing in Goa would run counter to national Aids policy, which encourages voluntary testing based on informed consent, and would reflect the lack of co-ordination between various state agencies. "We are not in favour of this at all and we must have a state debate on this issue," said J.J. Dias, project director of the Goa State Aids Control Society, a subsidiary of the central government's National Aids Control Organisation (Naco). Non-governmental organisations say focusing scarce resources on mandatory premarital testing would divert attention away from safe sex awareness programmes and create a false sense of security in the conjugal bed. Tripti Tandon, senior project office at the Lawyers' Collective, a NGO specialising in HIV and the law, says that HIV-negative certificates would further limit the ability of women to negotiate safe sex with husbands they suspect of infidelity. "It will simply become a virginity test or a character certificate for the women," Ms Tandon said. Civil rights groups argue that permitting mandatory testing in one context increases the risk that it will become a de facto requirement for employment and access to healthcare. Naco has identified six "high-prevalence" states, where infection rates among high-risk groups exceed 5 per cent and 1 per cent among antenatal women, a representation of the general population. Of these, four are contiguous states – Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh – where the epidemic has been driven by sex workers. In Manipur and Nagaland, bordering Burma, it has mainly spread through drug use. Wedged between Karnataka and Maharashtra, Goa is in the front line of India's war against HIV. Experts say the country is at a tipping point and in urgent need of mounting the largest prevention programme seen anywhere in the world. Compared with some countries in southern Africa, where HIV rates run as high as 20-30 per cent, India, with an estimated prevalence rate of around 0.9 per cent of the adult population, might seem on top of the epidemic. But the sheer size of the population, at over 1bn, means that for every percentage point added to the adult infection rate another 5m people are thrown on to the resources of an already overburdened health system. -- TUMCHER AXIRVAD ASSUM; DEV BOREM KORUM. Gabe Menezes. London, England _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: %(user_optionsurl)s This email sent to %(user_address)s
