Sex work should be decriminalized in the UK to slow the spread of HIV and combat prejudice, the former health secretary who led the country’s response to the emergence of Aids in the 1980s, has said.
Norman Fowler, the health secretary in Margaret Thatcher’s government, who spearheaded the “Don’t die of ignorance” information campaign, also called for an overhaul of Britain’s drug policy to protect injecting drug-users from HIV.
His call comes amid growing international momentum for reform following a special edition of The Lancet medical journal which outlined the public health benefits of decriminalising prostitution.
Lord Fowler, whose new book Don’t Die of Prejudice, documents how discrimination and stigma against sex workers, as well as HIV-positive people, drug-users and gay people, is hindering the world’s fight against Aids.
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