STIGMA-STATISTIK: Når dagsordener sættes i dansk aids-politik

Abstract

Jens Seeberg: Stigma Statistics: Agendas

in the Making in Danish AIDS Policy

This article explores a number of paradoxes

and assumptions in the public debate on

AIDS in Denmark. They form part of a

recurrent attack on the Danish ‘soft line’

AIDS policy that maintains anonymity and

voluntary HIV-testing. One central issue in

recent years has been obligatory testing of

asylum seekers from high risk areas as a

precondition for considering the asylum

request. Especially asylum seekers from

African countries are pointed out as constituting

a major threat to the native Danish

population in terms of spread of HIV. This is

shown to rest on a misreading of the official

statistics, repeated as often as the statistics

themselves. The assumption that there is a

basic clash between the human rights of the

HIV-infected person and the population in

general is discussed. This conceived clash

rests on the assumption that restrictions of

the human rights of the HIV-infected person

will provide efficient protection for the noninfected

majority. The potential counterproductive

effects of this line of thought are

discussed. Contact tracing is sometimes

considered as an effective preventive

measure. Part of the critique of the present

AIDS policy States that contact tracing is

virtually non-existing and that this has a

major negative impact on the preventive

efforts. It is argued that while the impact of

contact tracing in itself may be rather

limited, the lack of contact tracing may be

seen as a symptom of insufficient counselling.

While obligatory HIV testing may

never be practiced in Denmark, its recurrent

appearance on the agenda serves to provoke

a defensive stand among AIDS policy

makers. It is argued that this debate has

hitherto had the effect of keeping the needs

of HIV-infected people - and especially

HIV-infected immigrants — away from

public debate and serious concern.