MEXICO CITY, Mexico - The International AIDS Society (IAS) XVII International Conference ended here last Friday with a call to end the stigmatisation against people living with the disease.

During the conference, attended by 24,000 delegates from more than 190 countries, HIV experts from around the world said stigmatisation and the denial of human rights were having a negative impact on the effectiveness of HIV treatment and prevention.

According to presenters at the five-day conference, the fear of violence, discrimination and unwarranted prosecution prevented a number of people living with, or at risk of contracting HIV, from seeking testing and treatment, and drove others to place themselves at risk of infection.

"The voices of those who bear the brunt of this pandemic have been loud and clear in Mexico City.," said Pedro Cahn, international co-chairman of AIDS 2008 and outgoing president of the IAS.

"If the world does not heed the call to ensure the human rights and dignity of every person affected by HIV, we will not achieve our goal of universal access (to treatment)," he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Luís Soto Ramírez - the Mexican co-chairman of AIDS 2008 - said those most at risk, including "injection drug users, men who have sex with men and sex workers, as well as women and youth, must never be seen simply as patients or prevention targets".

Speakers at the final plenary session also underscored the connection between public health and human rights, and addressed the link between HIV and Tuberculosis (TB).

Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death among people living with HIV in Africa and a major cause of death elsewhere. At least one-third of the 33 million people living with HIV worldwide are co-infected with TB, the conference was told.

Dr Kevin Harvey, head of Jamaica's National HIV/STI programme, said Jamaica has 100 new cases of TB each year.

HIV prevention lessons from community experiences in concentrated epidemics, as well as the fact that criminalisation of HIV is costing lives and increasing suffering, were also among the issues discussed.

According to Edwin Cameron - a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa - the enactment of laws that criminalise transmission of or exposure to HIV had become so widespread, and criminal prosecutions so frequent, that they had become a crisis in efforts to deal rationally and effectively with HIV.

"Rather, they radically increase HIV stigma and become barriers to testing and treatment," he said.

Global Fund executive director, Dr Michel Kazatchkine, said everyone should be concerned that with less than two years to go before the deadline for universal access to HIV medication, the G8 had committed little more than a third of the resources it promised to deliver by 2010.

The next international AIDS conference will be held in Vienna, Austria in 2010.

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