IOM Highlights Migrants’ Access to HIV Services at XIX International AIDS Conference
Despite political commitments at the highest level to address the
health and HIV vulnerabilities of migrants and mobile populations,
they continue to lack adequate access to HIV services in most
countries. This is a worrying public health omission requiring
urgent redress in a world increasingly dependent on human mobility,
says IOM, as the XIX International AIDS Conference opens in
Washington D.C. this weekend.
"Migrants have demonstrated time and again their positive
contribution to the development of societies and economies.
Their exclusion from health services and policies is not only a
denial of the basic human right to health, but also a misguided
pandering to public fears and perceptions of migrants as a burden
on social services," says IOM Director General Ambassador William
Lacy Swing.
"It is now time for countries to be bold, to take action, and
uphold a tenet they ascribe to – the right to health for
all,” he adds.
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Participation at the XIX International AIDS Conference
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Satellite Session on TB and HIV
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Bridging Session on Migration and HIV
During the week-long conference, IOM will participate in a
number of high visibility events where it will share best practices
to address the specific HIV vulnerabilities affecting migrants and
mobile populations.
The first event hosted by IOM with the Canadian Public Health
Agency (PHAC), the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC),
Responses to HIV and Migration in Western Industrialized Countries:
Current Challenges, Promising Practices, Future Directions, will
take place on Sunday 22nd July.
It will examine the challenges related to monitoring HIV in
migrant populations and providing migrant-sensitive HIV programmes
and services in North America and Europe.
“Discussions at this initial satellite event will explore
promising practices and opportunities to collaborate and strengthen
responses to migration- related HIV challenges in western
industrialized countries. Participants will present examples
how the 2008 World Health Assembly Resolution on the Health of
Migrants is being implemented in Europe and North America,”
says Barbara Rijks, Migration Health Programme Coordinator at
IOM’s Migration Health Division.
Even though HIV prevalence rates are generally low in western
industrialized countries, certain foreign-born populations may be
especially vulnerable to HIV infection and transmission.
In the United States, foreign born people are less likely to
have health insurance and therefore may lack access to regular
health care, including HIV care.
In Canada, the estimated new infection rate among individuals
born in HIV-endemic countries is about 8.5 times higher than among
other Canadians. Many are unaware of their HIV infection,
indicating that this population is not accessing HIV testing.
In both North America and Europe, evidence suggests that many
migrants from endemic countries contract HIV after arriving in the
country of destination.
“These findings have important implications for the
programmatic response to HIV in countries where HIV in migrant
populations accounts for a substantial proportion of newly
diagnosed HIV infections, and may require countries to divert their
spending to those prevention strategies that are likely to have the
most effect on curbing the epidemic,” adds Rijks.
The second satellite session, Digging for Solutions:
Implementation of the Declaration on Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV in
the Mining Sector in Southern Africa, organized by IOM’s
Regional Office in South Africa, in partnership with the Southern
Africa Development Community (SADC), and WHO’s Stop TB
Partnership, will feature one current and one former African
Minister of Health, a former mine worker living with Multi Drug
Resistant (MDR) TB, and representatives from the private sector and
development partners.
The event, which will take place on Tuesday 24 July, will
present an overview of the challenges and opportunities brought
about by a forthcoming SADC Declaration on TB in the mining sector.
In South Africa alone, over one third of the mine workers come from
neighbouring countries, with the majority from Lesotho, Mozambique
and Swaziland.
Mine workers in Southern Africa, especially those working in
gold mines, have some of the highest rates of TB in the world,
which is caused by high levels of HIV-infection, crowded living
conditions and exposure to silica dust. TB rates can be three times
higher among workers with silicosis.
In addition, people living with HIV are 20-30 times more likely to
develop TB than those without HIV. Many mining companies conduct
their own prevalence surveys on a regular basis. These show high
levels of HIV prevalence amongst their workers. For example, in
South Africa, AngloGold Ashanti estimated HIV prevalence among
employees at 30% and in 2008, Goldfields estimated it at 33.5 per
cent.
“The issue is regional. The mining industry in South
Africa is heavily dependent on migrant workers from neighbouring
countries. Men travelling to work in the mines are at the
greatest risk of getting TB, but their families back home are also
at risk when miners travel back and forth to work,” explains
Erick Ventura, IOM’s Regional Migration Health Coordinator
for Southern Africa.
For more information please contact
Niurka Pineiro
IOM Washington D.C.
Tel: + 1 202 862 1826 Ext. 225
Email:
"mailto:npineiro@iom.int">npineiro@iom.int