AGAINST the GRAIN

was the first person to really document the heterosexual spread of HIV there. “But I never,” he says, “imagined I’d end up where I am.”

Of the World Summit, he says: “People have to be constantly reminded that these days the Aids epidemic is driving famine and poverty, it has to be taken into account with everything we try to do.”
Especially, he adds, in South Africa. “We have to stop Aids being talked about only by the activists, and make sure it enters the mindset of the health ministers, the rural development workers, the trade unions.” Employers, too - he was trying to get mining giant Anglo-American provide HIV treatment to all its employees - not just its managers.

Above: Peter Piot meets Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela to discuss the US anti-Aids campaign

“I don’t see how the South African government can block HIV treatment forever. It’s becoming a major political issue over there.” A month later, Thabo Mbeki’s government did, indeed, agreed in principle to a limited and pilot, but government-funded, HIV treatment programme.
He is keenly aware that it is the unique stigma of Aids that holds back discussion and progress - but with characteristic hopefulness sees in that very stigma an opportunity for change.
“We’re 20 years into this epidemic, and the stigma continues not just in India and Africa but everywhere. I don’t have any illusion that stigma against people with HIV will ever be completely overcome”, he adds, agreeing that this is because humanity will probably never achieve a completely untroubled attitude towards sex.
“But the stigma means that powerful, simple - not simplistic - messages can still have shock value. If you can persuade a country’s Head of State to appear on a poster alongside an HIV positive person - that may seem mundane, but it can lead to a transformation. Look at Diana in your country.
“That’s why it’s so important for countries to be led in the fight against Aids from the very top. It’s so

useful for a country’s Aids initiative to be chaired by the president or the president’s son, rather than the health minister. It’s the difference between ‘This is a medical problem’ and