Name: HIV -- how to fight an epidemic of bad laws
Uploaded: 2012-05-24T15:00:01Z
Duration: 15 min 11 s
Description: There is an epidemic of HIV, and with it an epidemic of bad laws -- laws that effectively criminalize being HIV positive. At the TEDxSummit in Doha, TED Fellow Shereen El Feki gives a forceful argument that these laws, based in stigma, are actually helping the disease spread.

There is an epidemic of HIV, and with it an epidemic of bad laws -- laws that effectively criminalize being HIV positive. At the TEDxSummit in Doha, TED Fellow Shereen El Feki gives a forceful argument that these laws, based in stigma, are actually helping the disease spread.

HIV -- how to fight an epidemic of bad laws

Bad laws targeting people with HIV help the disease spread and harm those affected. In some fifty countries, being HIV positive can mean imprisonment, deportation, or forced medical treatment, as in the story of a man deported without explanation after a blood test. Criminalizing HIV and those at risk drives the epidemic underground and discourages testing and treatment. Science shows that with modern medicine, HIV is manageable, yet outdated policies rooted in fear still persist.