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The World Health Organization released “the first global public health guidelines” focusing on men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender persons. WHO’s 21 recommendations are designed to help health care workers and policymakers overcome anti-homosexual discrimination and provide LGBT communities with HIV testing, counseling, and lifesaving treatment. “This is the first time that WHO, as a UN agency together with other partners, is putting this forward,” said Dr. Gottfried Hirnschall, director of the HIV/AIDS department at WHO. “It is sensitive but it is right to the point and is really critical for the epidemic.”
The report notes that more than 75 countries worldwide criminalize same-gender sexual activity. “And transgender people lack legal recognition in most countries,” it says.
Particularly in Western nations, HIV infections among MSM and transgenders are surging again. Homosexual men are 20 times more likely to be HIV-infected than heterosexual men, and rates are even higher in Mexico, Thailand, and Zambia. HIV infection rates among transgender people range from 8 percent to 68 percent, depending on the country.
“It is difficult to respond with even the best of interventions that we have available to us if individuals run the risk of violence, of ridicule, of other forms of humiliation on their way to accessing services,” noted George Ayala, executive officer of the San Francisco-based Global Forum on MSM and HIV.
To access the full WHO report, visit http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/guidelines/msm_guidelines2011/en/index.html.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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