Don’t jail non-disclosing HIV+ sex partners: doctors
Posted December 19, 2011 6:51 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Canada is being asked stop prosecuting people with HIV, who don’t tell their sexual partners about their status. The director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS says the practice only adds to negative stigmas.
Julio Montaner is part of a team of doctors says people with HIV and AIDS shouldn’t go to prison for having sex with their partner without letting them know they’re infected. He says AIDS patients can now take drugs that make the risk of transmitting the disease incredibly low.
Montaner says those carrying other sexually transmitted diseases aren’t charged for failing to disclose their health problems, “If what we want is to decrease the likelihood of HIV-transmission, what we need is to have a more supportive attitude so that people can voluntarily come forward, test, treat and less likely to transmit.”
He insists with proper treatment, and the use of condoms, the risk of transmission can be virtually eliminated, and laws are only needed to prevent malicious spreading of the disease.
Montaner is making his points in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
