Belgium
| National policy | |
|---|---|
| National policy/strategy or official recommendations on HIV testing? | Yes |
| National policy/strategy document | |
| Who can administer HIV tests? | |
| Restrictions on who can legally administer HIV tests? | Yes |
| Which groups can legally do HIV testing? |
|
| Further comments | At the moment an advice from the Health Council is under preparation which will give advice to also allow community workers to carry out an HIV test, provided that they are properly trained to make decentralised and demedicalised HIV testing feasible. |
| Free HIV testing | |
| HIV testing free to all who want it? | Yes in certain places |
| Further comments | Certain low-threshold sexual health centers (3 in the country, one in each region in Antwerp, Bruxelles and Liege. |
| Is free HIV testing available? | Yes in certain places |
| Further comments | Low accessibility of the sexual health centers due to their region locations in Antwerp, Bruxelles and Liege |
| HIV testing restrictions | |
| HIV testing access restricted for some groups/populations? | No |
| Which groups are restricted | |
| Further comments | |
| Availability of testing in non-clinical settings | |
| Is testing available in any of the following ways? | |
| Postal HIV sampling legal? | Yes |
| Home HIV testing legal? | Yes |
| Community testing at NGOs legal? | Yes |
| Community/outreach event testing legal? | Yes |
| Other | At universities done by Ex Aequo and SIDA'SOS |
| Rapid tests used by community based testing services/initiatives? | Finger blood, Saliva |
| Anonymity/Confidentiality of HIV testing | |
| Anonymous testing available? | Yes |
| If yes, please give details | Only at the previously mentioned low threshold sexual health centers in Antwerp, Bruxelles and Liege |
| If not, why not, what sort of information is required and is there any promise of confidentiality? | At other sexual health service providers information about age, gender, nationality, social situation and sexual behaviour will be recorded |
| Discrimination & equality | |
| Legislation | |
| Legislation protecting the rights of people with HIV? | Yes |
| Further comments | |
| Other key populations | |
| Needle exchange available for people who inject drugs? | Yes |
| Further comments | Availability of needle exchange is also confirmed by information available on https://www.hri.global/global-state-of-harm-reduction |
| Opiate substitution therapy available? | Yes |
| Further comments | Availability of OST
is also confirmed by information available on https://www.hri.global/global-state-of-harm-reduction |
| Are PWID (people who inject drugs) excluded from HIV treatment while actively using drugs? | No |
| Further comments | |
| Legal to sell sex? | Yes |
| Further comments | Sex-work is legal in certain areas, not everywhere. For further information http://sexualrightsdatabase.org/map/21/Adult%20sex%20work/371/Belgium |
| Legal to buy sex? | Yes |
| Further comments | Sex-work is legal in certain areas, not everywhere. For further information http://sexualrightsdatabase.org/map/21/Adult%20sex%20work/371/Belgium |
| Access to HIV Treatment | |
| Free access to HIV treatment? | Yes, for some |
| Further comments | Persons of undocumented legal status may have problems to access medication in some cases. |
| Status and access to HIV treatment and care in your country | |
| Access to HIV treatment restricted for certain populations with HIV? | Yes |
| Which groups are restricted? |
|
| If more than one of the above populations selected, please give more information | |
| Status | |
| Country status | EU |
| Mobility in Europe | |
| Do the following groups/populations have legal access to HIV treatment? (i.e provided on the same basis as citizens of the country) | |
| Legal treatment access: Other EU migrant nationals | Yes there is universal access |
| If yes but exceptions, please describe | |
| Legal treatment access: general non-EU migrants | Yes there is universal access |
| If yes but exceptions, please describe | |
| Legal treatment access: Non-EU migrants with asylum/refugee status | Yes there is universal access |
| If yes but exceptions, please describe | |
| Legal treatment access: Non-EU migrants who are undocumented | Yes but there are exceptions |
| If yes but exceptions, please describe | In Belgium HIV+ people of undocumented status used to get medication and even papers to remain in the country based on humanitarian grounds. More recently the policy has changed. The migration offices argue that HIV treatment is increasingly available in low-income countries and therefore they enforce sending patients without papers back to their home countries. It is not known accurate specific and up-to-date their evidence is on which they base their decisions, and in many cases it was shown that the information was not accurate. In addition, in these cases, continuity of care and treatment is often not granted (as people are sent home without medical files and little financial support to buy medications, if it is available at all). In these cases, clearly human rights principles are not respected. In addition, this has also implications on HIV testing and prevention: we promoted HIV testing based on the fact that universal treatment was available, which is not really the case any more for vulnerable populations like sub-Saharan African migrants. In such communities the word travels quickly, and prevention workers are losing their credibility and trust. Communities have begun to fear "the system": and thus people do not come forward for HIV testing and prevention. |
| Further comments | |
| About this data | |
| Last minor revision | 21 October 2016 |
| Last major revision | 21 October 2016 |
| Published | 19 January 2017 |
| Data sources | As well as responses from in-country individuals and organisations information was taken from the following sources: http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/healthtopics/aids/Pages/monitoring-dublin-declaration.aspx Sex Work Laws These included https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_by_country#Europe The Global Network of Sex Work Projects www.nswp.org and country sources and http://sexualrightsdatabase.org/map/21/Adult%20sex%20work and http://spl.ids.ac.uk/sexworklaw Drug use Needle exchange information was taken from Harm Reduction International who have an interactive tool https://www.hri.global/global-state-of-harm-reduction Criminal Law http://criminalisation.gnpplus.net has useful info about the criminal law and is searchable by country as well as http://www.hivjustice.net/site/countries/ MSM http://ilga.org/what-we-do/state-sponsored-homophobia-report/ (2016) |
| Data contacts | Responses were received from SidAIDS Migrants Sireas, EX Aequo ASBL (www.exaequo.be) and Institute of Tropical Medicine (www.hivsam.be) |