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Are asylum-seekers being denied new HIV treatment?

By Liz Fekete

1 August 1997

Fifty people responded to a survey by the Terrence Higgins Trust, the African Advocacy Foundation and the Aids Treatment Project, saying that as HIV-sufferers they have been refused the new Triple Combination Therapy.

Many of those who responded to the survey were female African asylum-seekers who were told that they were not entitled to treatment because of their uncertain immigration status.

Survival of the fittest

Dr Simon Barton, a clinical director of HIV and Genito-Urinary Medicine Services at the Chelsea and Westminster hospital, is angry at the arbitrary nature of decisions as to who is treated and has called for a national response. But with treatment at £10000 per patient a year, and with vital decisions left to market forces, rampant inequalities are bound to take root. According to community health carer, Sarah Kakayi, 'patients must be fairly treated irrespective of where they come from É Taking these drugs is complicated and for people whose first language is not English it can be harder to access them. The future of the HIV community will be the survival of the fittest - those who are best equipped to fight for treatment.'

The Big Issue cites the case of Pauline, an asylum-seeker from West Africa, who was so ill with HIV-related infections that she and her three children started planning her funeral. She was refused Triple Combination Therapy at a London hospital because doctors said she was too ill and because as an asylum-seeker her immigration status had not been determined. Following a campaign by community health workers, the doctors finally relented, and after the treatment her health dramatically improved.

Colonies want citizenship rights

The Dependent Territories Association, representing Britain's remaining colonies, is mounting a campaign to ensure that Britain honours its colonial commitments and grants full citizenship rights to its inhabitants.

Big Issue nd, Guardian 26.4.97

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