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World AIDS Day: Punitive laws threaten HIV progress
HIV prevention efforts - and the promise of antiretroviral therapy as prevention - are being undermined by punitive laws targeting those infected with and at risk of HIV, Human Rights Watch said today on the eve of World AIDS Day.
This year's World AIDS Day theme is "universal access and human rights," tying together goals for universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, and care with recognition that respect for human rights is critical in the global response to AIDS. Achieving universal access to treatment has also been a key theme in debates over the past year around the use of antiretroviral treatment (ART) as a part of comprehensive HIV prevention strategies. Mathematical models have proposed that early initiation of universal antiretroviral treatment combined with HIV prevention programs could lead to the eventual elimination of HIV infection.