HEALTH MINISTER Dr Fenton Ferguson has promised that steps are being taken to introduce legislation to classify HIV/AIDS as a communicable disease for the purpose of reporting and monitoring.
"This is going to be a very important piece of legislation because the question of stigma and discrimination would be, by that one stroke, a very important point that will again further the cause as it relates to persons affected by HIV/AIDS," said Dr Ferguson.
In Sweden, the Communicable Diseases Act requires people with diagnosed HIV to disclose in any situation where someone might be placed at risk and to also practise safer sex (which, in Sweden, means using condoms - the impact of treatment on viral load and infectiousness is not yet considered to be part of the safer sex armamentarium.)
But in Sweden you're damned if you do (disclose) and damned if you don't because Sweden is one of several countries in western Europe - including Austria, Finland,Norway, and Switzerland - where people with HIV can be (and are) prosecuted for having consensual unprotected sex even when there was prior disclosure of HIV-positive status and agreement of the risk by the HIV-negative partner. Sweden uses the general criminal law for these prosecutions of which there have been at least 40 - out of an HIV population of around 5,000.
And if you think the Swedes aren't being overly harsh, then watch the harrowing documentary, 'How Could She?' about a young woman, Lillemore, who was in such denial that she did not tell anyone that she was HIV-positive (including the doctors who delivered her two children). Even though both children were born HIV-free, and no-one was harmed by her non-disclosure, following the break-up of her marriage, her ex-husband reported her to the authorities and she was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison.
