Countries, including Canada, are prosecuting people with HIV because they misunderstand science, leading researchers say

published on July 27, 2018 by André Picard, in The Globe and Mail

People with HIV are being unjustly prosecuted around the world, in large part because courts do not have a good grasp of medical research, say some of the world’s leading scientists.

“The application of up‐to‐date scientific evidence in criminal cases has the potential to limit unjust prosecutions and convictions,” said a group of top medical researchers led by Françoise Barré‐Sinoussi, a co-discoverer of HIV, in a consensus statement issued at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam.

According to the statement, 68 countries worldwide have laws that make non-disclosure, exposure or transmission of the virus a crime, and 33 other countries use different criminal provisions in similar cases.

Most cases involve sex between consenting partners or instances of kissing, biting or spitting in which there is no transmission of HIV.

Prosecutions are driven by the false beliefs that everyone with HIV is infectious and that infection with the virus is a death sentence, the scientists say. In fact, people taking antiretroviral treatment have suppressed viral loads and are essentially non-infectious.

The harsh, ill-informed laws drive people living with and at risk of infection into hiding and discourage them from being tested, said Linda-Gail Bekker, president of the International AIDS Society.

"Simply put, HIV criminalization laws are ineffective, unwarranted and discriminatory,” she said. “These laws have one thing in common: They misstate how HIV is transmitted.”

Edwin Bernard, global co-ordinator of the HIV Justice Network, said a handful of countries, including Canada, stand out for their aggressive approach to prosecution.

“The majority of the cases occurred in the United States, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Canada and Zimbabwe,” he said.

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Julio Montaner

BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

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Countries, including Canada, are prosecuting people with HIV because they misunderstand science, leading researchers say

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