The only law in Australia that criminalises the intentional transmission of HIV is set to be amended.
At the 2014 AIDS symposium in Melbourne, Victorian Health Minister David Davis announced that section 19A of Victoria's Crimes Act will be reviewed and amended -- prompting a standing ovation from HIV advocates who have long called the law discriminatory.
The section was added to the Crimes Act in 1993, making it illegal to intentionally infect someone with a 'very serious disease', and exclusively defining that disease as HIV.
It came in response to a number of robberies in the state, in which assailants had threatened people with syringes allegedly containing HIV infected blood.
But the law has never been used to prosecute someone who threatened another with a syringe, and has rarely been used in any other circumstance.
In 2009 a man was prosecuted under 19A for deliberately infecting a number of people with HIV through sexual intercourse, and he was sentenced to a total of ten years for his crimes.
Two other sets of charges were laid under section 19A but never made it to trial.
Bill Whittaker from the National Association of People with HIV Australia has told Abby Dinham, the law only served to stigmatise the disease, and may even act as a deterant for those who suspect they have HIV to seek testing and treatment.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full interview)
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