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| Neglect, Isolation and Punishment in New Orleans: Stories from those ‘In Harm’s Way’Stigmatizing and discriminating laws and policies towards sex workers, people who use drugs, and the LGBTI community are barriers to one’s access of HIV prevention measures such as needle and syringe exchange programs.
By: PRDA Stigmatizing and discriminating laws and policies towards sex workers, people who use drugs, and the LGBTI community are barriers to one’s access of HIV prevention measures such as needle and syringe exchange programs. These discourage the consistent use of condoms among sex workers and LGBTI populations. Southern United States has the fastest growing HIV rates. Megan McLemore, senior health researcher at Human Rights Watch says, ‘The HIV epidemic in New Orleans is one of the worst in the US, and proven strategies for addressing it are being ignored. People who use drugs cant get clean needles, and police are confiscating condoms from sex workers and those suspected of sex work, such as transgender women’ In Harm’s Way: State Response to Sex Workers, Drug Users, and HIV in New Orleans unveils how the right to health of key affected populations is being threatened, and brings to the forefront the stories of largely neglected, stigmatized and punished people. The report is based on interviews conducted in 2013 with 170 New Orleans resident sex workers and people who use drugs, of which one third were transgender women and three quarters were African- American. Police, public defenders, state and local government officials, public health providers, and advocates for people living with HIV were also interviewed. Louisiana has an estimated 45,000 injecting drug users, a quarter of whom are located in New Orleans. Yet the city has few services, such as needle and syringe exchanges which are proven to prevent the spread of HIV and hepatitis B and C. In fact state criminal law prohibits the possession and distribution of syringes. This is in contrast to New York and San Francisco, where active syringe programs have significantly reduced HIV transmission among drug users. A study on injecting drug users found that HIV prevalence fell from 54 per cent to 13 per cent between 1990-2001 following the introduction of needle exchange programs. Not only does Louisiana law and policies forbid the implementation of proven, evidence-based HIV prevention measures, but they result in arbitrary arrest and detention, and harassment of sex workers and the LGBTI population by law enforcement officials. Frequent arrest and detention affects the ability of people living with HIV amongst these groups to access and stay on their HIV medications. One interviewee was detained ten times in three years, leading to critical time lags in her ability to adhere to HIV treatment. Louisiana’s ‘crimes against nature’ laws, which prohibit solicitation of oral and anal sex, are described by McLemore as ‘state-sponsored homophobia’ and reported to result in abuse and extortion of transgender women by law enforcement. PUDs, sex workers, and transgender populations are also among the poorest in the US South. Laws and policies in favor of punishment over prevention have dire impacts on public health. Governments that respond through punitive measures are fuelling an epidemic, and working against human rights principles that can support key populations and save lives. McLemore states that ‘Louisiana’ Watch the Human Rights Watch video on how they joined together with Women with a Vision (http://www.wwav- Join HIV Advocates online for advocacy resources, news, and advice. Like our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/ Or Join us on Sina Weibo: http://weibo.com/ End
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