The Argentine Senate approved by 60 votes in favor and only one vote against, by Humberto Schianovi, from the Republican Party, the Law for the Comprehensive Response to HIV, Viral Hepatitis, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and Tuberculosis on Thursday night. fair (30). The session was accompanied on a big screen by a large mobilization in Congress Square since 12 pm, which brought together social organizations that have fought for the right since 2016, when the bill was first presented in the National Congress.
In addition to contemplating regulations regarding hepatitis and STIs, a particularly important aspect of this new law is the guarantee of rights against stigma and discrimination that especially people living with HIV suffer.
The result represents the achievement of HIV and Hepatitis organizations, which guided the need to update the National Aids Law, from 1990. The legislation, a pioneer in Latin America, was a great step towards guaranteeing access to prevention and treatment, but, with scientific and, mainly, social advances, the update became necessary with a human rights perspective in the response to epidemics.
Despite delays in Congress over seven years, the project reached consensus among different political forces, which was illustrated in the first two presentations in the session. The first to speak was the senator and doctor Pablo Yedlin, senator for the northern province of Tucumán for the ruling coalition Frente de Todos (FdT). “The amended law today allowed, for 30 years, patients living with the HIV virus to have access to treatment through the national state”, he pointed out.
“It is estimated that 140,000 people live with the virus. 17% are unaware of their diagnosis, and 30% of patients know their diagnosis at a late stage, perpetuating the contagion cycle”, said the senator, highlighting the role of the public health system. health, which serves 65% of HIV cases in the country.
Next, Mario Fiad, senator for Jujuy from the macrist coalition Together for Change (JxC), advanced his vote in favor of the project. “This law has updated the current law that has taken many years and has the addition, which I celebrate, of also including viral hepatitis B and C and other sexually transmitted infections with a human rights perspective,” he said, adding that legislators “arrived late”. “We don’t need to wait for these people to knock on the door of the three powers to guarantee access to their rights. We have to get ahead”, he emphasized.
As other senators highlighted in the debate, the reform should serve as a reference for other countries. “This bill, as the law was 30 years ago, is a model for all of Latin America and one of the best legislation in the world,” said Senator Silvina García Larraburu (FdT), for the province of Río Negro.
What does the HIV law reform say?
The text incorporates a perspective that includes the people most exposed to the HIV virus, guarantees uninterrupted access to prevention and treatment and seeks to eliminate forms of discrimination in the work environment, ensuring the privacy of the diagnosis. In this sense, it prohibits testing in labor admission exams, favoring the employability of people with HIV and protecting them from discrimination, which systematically excludes this population from the labor market. People diagnosed with HIV, hepatitis or a situation of vulnerability will have 20 years of social security contribution added to their retirement calculation.
As a tool for reparation and guarantee of rights, it also establishes early access to 20 years of contribution for people with HIV or hepatitis in situations of vulnerability.
The law passed this Thursday (30th) declares the development of technologies for the public production of medicines and supplies to be of public and national interest, as well as the use of the Safeguards of the Agreement on Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, guaranteeing access to medicines and vaccines despite the patent market logic. This was an in-depth debate in recent years with the covid-19 pandemic and which had the contribution of these organizations that have been working with the theme and for rights in the field of health for decades.
In addition, the approved law contemplates the right to quality information based on evidence for people who are capable of gestating, and who have reserved their right to deliver vaginally. It also provides that the positive diagnosis for HIV, hepatitis and other STIs must “be accompanied by due pre- and post-test counseling and must be voluntary, free, confidential, universal, guaranteeing the link to the health system”.
“In the last 30 years, the epidemic has changed: we have new tools in relation to HIV”, explains on its website the Huésped Foundation, a member of the International AIDS Coalition, when explaining the need to update the current law. “We know more, we know that undetectable is equal to intransmissible, there are new treatments and new ways of thinking about prevention.”
With the sanction, all public policies related to pathologies must incorporate the provisions of the new law.
Editing: Thales Schmidt
