(Busan) Leaders at the forefront of global endeavors to combat HIV/AIDS called on those suffering from the epidemic to break their silence and speak out during an international forum here last week.

They also stressed that an embracive social, legal environment is crucial to help them come out and gain access to medical services, support and care, urging the international community to unite to stamp out stigmas attached to the virus.

“I think HIV is still a disease of stigma, discrimination and prejudice. Even though we have managed to break the conspiracy of silence, we still have problems of what I call epidemics of laws,” UNAIDS Executive Director Michele Sidibe said during an interview with The Korea Herald on Saturday.

“Laws are really impacting access to services for people living with HIV. There are discriminatory laws which are criminalizing men having sex with men, injecting drug users, commercial sex workers. They hide themselves and don’t have access.”

He was in Busan for the 10th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, which kicked off its five-day run at BEXCO in this southern port city on Friday.

UNAIDS is a U.N. partnership that leads efforts to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. With the AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific, it is co-hosting the ICAAP10.

Sidibe also pointed out that young people infected with the virus should be allowed to actively engage in the fight against HIV while stressing political leaders and other people in key decision-making positions should play a more active role.

“We need to look at and create new generations of young leaders in order to make young people not just passive beneficiaries of programs, but actors of change.”

See the original news story on koreaherald.com.