Experts dispute report about HIV in Hungary

Hungarian experts are divided over the recent Euro HIV report that gave a poor assessment of care and conditions for people living with HIV/AIDS in Hungary, Nepszabadsag daily said on Thursday.

The first survey of HIV policy ranked Hungary 23rd out of 29 countries. According to the website of the European AIDS Treatment Group, Hungary scored 652 points out of 1,000.

The survey concluded that access to HIV care is difficult in Hungary. HIV/AIDS is strongly stigmatised, patients often experience discrimination and anonymous testing is not guaranteed.

Denes Banhegyi, head of the AIDS department of Budapest's Saint Laszlo Hospital, insisted that patients are properly cared for. He added, however, that people carrying HIV face strong prejudice and stigmatisation by the public. The related law contains lots of anomalies: eg, health workers are obliged to undergo AIDS tests while the testing of prostitutes not properly regulated, he said.

Balazs Denes, executive director of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ), said that the current legal situation HIV and AIDS called for urgent action.

"Human rights are violated on the one hand while the community is endangered on the other. An 'explosion' would meet us unprepared to contain the spread of the disease," he said.

Although the law ensures anonymous testing, what happens in practice is different, since people undergoing tests are asked to present their health insurance identification number, TASZ's HIV/AIDS programme director Ferenc Bugyinszky told the paper.

In the first three months of 2009, 35 new HIV cases were reported in Hungary, bringing the total number to 1,665.

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