CHENNAI: The question to be asked in India, poised at a critical stage of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, is: what is the epidemiological track going to be? Is India going to follow the Sub Saharan track or the Australian Asian track, asks Justice Edwin Cameron, judge, Supreme Court of Appeal, South Africa, and rights activist.

In countries such as Australia and Thailand, where good, wise, visionary policies were in place, the result was that the HIV epidemic remained confined and was well managed. In South Africa, however, the opposite was happening because of the lack of governmental leadership and lack of interest in the media.

"We have a massive epidemic where 11 per cent of the population and over 18 per cent of the adult population is HIV positive. This is what India really faces now," said Justice Cameron, who was recently in Chennai. He has been at the forefront of the rights of the HIV battle in South Africa for 21 years now, the same time he has lived with HIV. "This is not something we have to debate in theory. There is good previous experience before us — Australia and Thailand, for instance. The important things we have learnt from these two countries are governmental initiative and non-discrimination."

How the epidemic shapes up depends largely on policy and media interest and responsibility, adds Michael Kirby, one of the seven judges of the High Court of Australia, the nation's federal Supreme Court. He has also served as a member of the World Health Organisation's inaugural Global Commission on AIDS. In Australia, it was the commitment of politicians that sent the epidemic curve down. "I don't see that kind of leadership, interest or commitment in India."

Commenting on the deep prejudicial attitudes, stigma and discrimination against HIV in India, Judge Cameron says: "One must accept that. Dealing properly with an HIV epidemic... requires education and shift in attitude."

But they both believe that India is indeed ready for such a shift. "If you explain things nicely and how things have turned out in other countries, then people come around. But that doesn't happen overnight, because there is a lot of ignorance, prejudice and hypocrisy," Justice Kirby adds.

Will disclosure by celebrities that they are living with HIV help in the process of destigmatisation? "It certainly helps. In the U.S. when magic Johnson, the basketball player, came out (with his status), it made a huge difference," says Judge Cameron who himself "took the leap in the dark" and disclosed his status several years ago. On the other hand, it is necessary to create a climate in which it is possible not only for celebrities but also for every person living with HIV to discuss their status.

One way to do that would be to tell people that AIDS is medically treatable. "I have been living with the virus since 1986; with AIDS for 10 years now; and have been on ARVs [anti-retroviral drugs] for nine years." Recent studies have shown that the drugs have produced a 90 per cent recovery even among those in resource poor settings. "That is an important message. Most [kinds] cancers don't have that kind of recovery rate. With the right kind of treatment and prescription, one is restored to total normalcy and immune control," Justice Cameron shot with a rock solid conviction, born out of personal experience.

Also a vocal campaigner for minority sexual rights, he says: "There is no doubt that criminalising same gender sex between consenting adults in private is a very retrograde aspect in the epidemic. Justice Kirby adds: "If you want to get into people's minds to effect a change, then irrespective of sexual conduct, you have to interact with them."

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