“AMLO: People with HIV are not ‘AIDS patients’ and we demand medication”

Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated in his morning press conference on January 8th that there are campaigns against him alleging shortages and a lack of medicine for "AIDS patients" and "children with cancer."

January 9, 2020

By Milena Pafundi

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated during his morning press conference on January 8th that there are campaigns against him alleging shortages and a lack of medication for "AIDS patients" and "children with cancer." He said that once the corruption and sabotage by those who controlled the lucrative drug trade end, the budget will be sufficient to provide all the necessary medications.

These statements prompted a reaction from civil society organizations and people living with HIV. They responded that Article 4 of the Constitution, the right to health, cannot be subordinated to the fight against corruption. They affirmed that they will continue to demand action regarding the lack of access to medication and the fight against the stigma and discrimination inherent in referring to people living with AIDS as "sick."

The Mexican Network of People Living with HIV in Mexico City maintains a registry and documents all cases of people who come to their organization seeking medication. “From Monday to Wednesday this week, with a prescription and voter ID, we have provided medication to 25 people who are affiliated with the IMSS (Mexican Social Security Institute) and the ISSSTE (Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers). AMLO (President Andrés Manuel López Obrador) says he is cleaning up corruption from the ground up, but the reality is that they can't play games when it comes to health. It is urgent that all CAPASITS (Outpatient Centers for the Prevention and Care of AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections), as well as the IMSS and the ISSSTE, have medication,” says Melken Mejía, an activist with the Network. “As an organization, we provide medication free of charge, which comes from donations. For example, today we received a bottle of 30 Truvada pills, and the Network divided it into doses of 10 pills to benefit 3 people. We make small bags of 10 doses, and that's what we give them.”

The Network is one of the organizations that criticized the president's new strategy of not allocating more resources to Civil Society Organizations to provide antiretroviral treatments to people living with HIV. The new mechanism for purchasing medications disproportionately affects the most vulnerable populations, including trans* people and sex workers.

"We are not sick. The president should be careful with his language."

Carlos Granados, founder and coordinator of Vhiviendoenplenitud, an organization dedicated to supporting and advising LGBT people living with HIV, expressed a similar sentiment: “We are not sick. We have a health condition that requires medication to manage. The language the president used is very derogatory and offensive because it stigmatizes us. Then people hear this kind of rhetoric from the president and repeat it. On social media, I've noticed people saying things like, ‘Why should I have to pay for HIV treatment with my taxes?’ That's how far hate speech goes. The president should be very careful with his language because what he says and what people understand it to be becomes hate speech.”

Regarding the shortages, his organization has also denounced the fact that the lack of antiretroviral medications means that, without any explanation, people are changing the treatments they've been following for years: “Colleagues have come to me asking for medication because they aren't getting it. And they're still being prescribed an old medication that's no longer in use, and that's worrying.”

Granados also clarified why some medications are discontinued: “They are discontinued because the government didn't buy them, not because they are no longer effective. And since they didn't buy them, they can't be prescribed.”

"My doctor warned me that he couldn't guarantee the supply."

In that regard, Adrian Miranda of the Morelos Network of Positive Youth and Adolescents shared his experience with discontinued medications with Presentes. “A few days ago, my supply of Truvada ran out. I went back to the clinic to ask if they had received the medication and they told me that the distributing company had been sued for breach of contract and would no longer be supplied to patients. I waited for my doctor for several hours to tell him I needed to switch to Biktarvy. There was no evaluation, no needles, no blood tests. He simply wrote a prescription and warned me that they couldn't guarantee the supply of Biktarvy, and that if it ran out, I wouldn't be able to go back to my previous treatment or my immune system would be compromised.”

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