Lack of oversight on progressive laws fuelling HIV

Abstract

Ignorance of a 2007 Department of Health (DoH) directive to provide all foreign migrants with access to antiretroviral treatment, and understaffed and overburdened local facilities, have entrenched widespread ongoing discrimination and worsened health care outcomes.
This is according to two migration researchers who shared data on migrants’ access to health and HIV prevention services at the 5th Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research Alliance (SAHARA) conference at Midrand in early December last year.
Ms Joanne Vearey of Witwatersrand University’s Forced Migration Studies Programme and Ms Erin Tansey, Migration Health Project Officer for the International Organisation for Migration based in Pretoria, said local rural migrants not in possession of their green ID book were also being victimised.