Dangerous election games
It may be the beginning of the general election campaign but must MPs persist
in using the lives of people living with HIV as a political football in a
desperate bid save their failing careers?
Michael Howard’s plan for mandatory TB and HIV tests for would-be migrants
to the UK is a classic example.
Howard’s opening gambit in the pre-election cat fight was to pick on
a vulnerable group (immigrants with HIV and/or TB) and cynically combine the
quite separate issues of migrants and infectious diseases.
By talking about immigrants and disease in the same breath he merged the ideas
in people’s minds and pandered to the very worst prejudices of middle
England.
He left the erroneous impression that an endless stream of disease-ridden
foreigners are entering the country to rip off the NHS and infect ‘innocent’
Britons.
His policy is not only based on a falsehood it is actually dangerous on public
health grounds. Under his proposals, people found to have TB would be turned
away untreated and people found to be living with HIV would be booted out
because they might become a burden on the NHS.
As it happens, the Government is already routinely screening would-be migrants
for TB entering the UK at Heathrow and Gatwick airports. These people are
treated before being given entry clearance. Howard’s proposals would
extend this by requiring people from non-European countries to undergo testing
for TB in their country of origin as part of the visa process.
But compulsory testing of migrants is not just a Tory idea. Last year the
Labour Government came very close to introducing compulsory HIV tests for
people seeking to enter the country. It was only after the intervention of
some very eminent public health doctors that the idea was abandoned at the
eleventh hour. These doctors told the ministers that compulsory testing would
fuel illegal immigration and drive the disease underground because people
would fear detention or arrest if they went for tests.
UNAIDS also says travel restrictions have no public health justification.
Many experts fear pre-visa testing in countries of origin will lead to flourishing
markets in forged health papers and undermine public health efforts that way.
Ultimately though, the worst aspect of this policy is that it is founded on
the highly discriminatory assumption that people living with HIV are a drain
on society. We know this is absolutely untrue. Many people with HIV live fulfilling
lives and contribute to society. In addition, NAT points out that 34 per cent
of people living with HIV in the UK are currently not on HIV treatments and
therefore are of minimal cost to the NHS.
It is also worth reminding ourselves that border testing in US has done little
to halt the spread of HIV infections within its borders. That country has
the highest rate of HIV of any developed country. Enough said.
Amanda Elliot, managing editor
