We are people with AIDS

Your detailed coverage of HIV and AIDS during the current International AIDS Conference is much appreciated. However, may I once more plead for more care in terminology, particularly in the headlines.

The headline of the article on page 18 of The Jakarta Post on July 10 refers to HIV victims. In fact it was at one of the earliest conferences on AIDS, in 1983 in Denver, U.S., that a small band of HIV-infected activists protested the way in which the community refused to involve people with AIDS in decision- making and planning. They drafted a manifesto which became known as the "Denver Principles", the preamble of which read: "We condemn attempts to label us as 'victims', a term which implies defeat, and we are only occasionally 'patients', a term which implies passivity, helplessness, and dependence upon the care of others. We are 'People with AIDS.'"

We need to continue to remind new generations of reporters and editors of these principles, which remain valid 20 years on.

CHRIS W. GREEN

Jakarta