President reinforces stigma by declaring that people living with HIV are 'an expense for everyone in Brazil'
As Article 196 of the 1988 Federal Constitution guarantees, "health is the right of all and the duty of the State". Defending the obvious is an increasingly necessary task. Brazil currently has a president who goes against the constitution of the country it governs. Last Wednesday 5, Jair Bolsonaro stated that people living with HIV are "an expense for everyone in Brazil".
The statement was made after the president demonstrated support for the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights initiative to promote sexual abstinence as a method of contraception. If it weren't enough, on Saturday 8, he speaks of “pity” on the condition of people living with HIV / AIDS and calls them “AIDS patients”, a term that we have been fighting for many years to extinguish the vocabulary, since it is highly disrespectful.
In addition to being stigmatizing, the statement does not match the reality of government spending. In 2019, the purchase of antiretroviral drugs cost 1.8 billion reais to public coffers, representing less than 1% of total expenses. The pensions received by the unmarried daughters of the military cost 5 billion reais. Why is the president so uncomfortable with people living with HIV / AIDS?
To make HIV-positive people responsible for their lived condition is to transfer a deeply political issue to the individual field. It is to exempt the State from its obligation to guarantee access to health for all people. It is to hide the incompetence of the current government in formulating effective policies in the field of sexual and reproductive health, based on scientific data and not on ideologies.
With political pressure from organized civil society, Law 9,313 was created in 1996, which provides for the free and universal distribution of antiretroviral drugs by the Unified Health System (SUS). The Brazilian program for HIV / AIDS, which was once a reason for international recognition, is now dying in the public square in the face of the current political situation.
Investing in treatment is also investing in prevention. In addition to providing a better quality of life to HIV-positive people, regular adherence to antiretrovirals prevents transmission of the virus during sexual intercourse without a condom. It is what we call Undetectable = Non-transferable (I = I). This data has been scientifically proven and supported by organizations and governments around the world, including our Ministry of Health. Read more via Carta Capital