Black gay men remain at the forefront of the fight against HIV
Global Black Gay Men Connect makes its presence known at the International AIDS Conference
Funding the fight against HIV and persuading at-risk populations to use available medication were two of the topics discussed during this month’s meeting of the Global Black Gay Men Connect.
The group met for its pre-conference last Saturday before the 25th International AIDS Conference,i held n Munich, Germany, from 22 to 26 July. The theme of this year’s event was “demanding and securing funding for HIV prevention and defending the rights of HIV-positive people”.
Among events of this scale, this was the first pre-conference for the international gay activists’ network, which was founded in 2018 to raise the profile of international advocacy by black gay men living with HIV,
For Erasing 76 Crimes, Kingford Khanyiso Mkandawire, originally from Zambia and programme officer with the Global Black Gay Men Connect (GBGMC), agreed to discuss the issues and expectations surrounding the discussions currently taking place in Munich.
Erasing 76 Crimes: “Why was it important for GBGMC to organise a pre-conference in Munich?
Kingford Khanyiso Mkandawire: “For our organisation, our pre-conference is an opportunity to bring HIV-positive participants from all over the world, through scholarships, so that they can follow and take part in the discussions through their questions.
In addition, for professionals working on HIV/AIDS-related issues, it’s more a question of being able to share their expertise with the audience and get feedback.”
What are the expectations of Global Black Gay Men Connect?
Kingford Khanyiso Mkandawire: “Bringing together people and experts from the four corners of the world should enable us to understand what works in terms of prevention and treatment and how far we still have to go to meet a number of challenges, particularly in terms of access to treatment for men who have sex with men.
In Zambia, your country, how accessible is PrEP anti-HIV medication to gay men?
Kingford Khanyiso Mkandawire: In Zambia, there’s still a lot of ignorance, with many people unaware that PrEP exists for HIV-negative people, in order to prevent the chain of HIV contamination within the most vulnerable groups. This was the subject of a particularly interesting exchange with a representative of the pharmaceutical company John Snow International earlier today.
And as far as injectable PrEP is concerned, the method of administration, involving a painful [monthly] injection in the buttocks, still raises a great deal of reluctance among key populations [the people most at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS]. In this case, those are already used to taking PrEP in tablet form [daily].
It opens the possibility of a collective debate on the therapeutic acceptance of medical innovations.
During the pre-conference, a representative of Pepfar, the U.S .President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, announced that the United States would continue its commitment to funding Pepfar’s fight against HIV.
Cedric Pulliam, secretary general of GBGMC: As a former employee of Pepfar who worked on issues relating to key populations, I’d like to say that it’s a job that requires an enormous amount of dedication to the communities impacted by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
At a time when political negotiations are threatening to maintain Pepfar’s annual budget, if they can readjust their budget envelope to bring it into line with the expectations of civil society organisations, then we will have succeeded in turning things around.
