Unión Postal de las Américas, España y Portugal or UPAEP is a postal organization of 28 member countries. It was set up in the year 1911 to improve postal linkages across countries of South and North Americas. Nine founding members in 1911 (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Equador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay) were later joined by other continental neighbors, and two European nations – Spain and Portugal. UPAEP has a common annual postal stamp theme where-in all members release their stamps. In the year 2000, theme was ‘Campaña contra el SIDA’ or ‘campaign against AIDS’.
The 2000 campaign was part of a broader philatelic effort to use postage stamps as a health promotion tool due to their wide reach. In fact this was the first HIV-AIDS omnibus. This predated UN campaign by eleven years. Stamps issued by all member countries had the UPAEP logo, and AMRERICA written on them. The themes focused on prevention and hope, in the new millennium.
HIV prevention through barrier contraception
HIV-AIDS disease was first discovered in the year 1981. Initially it was considered as a condition common in IV drug users, homosexual men, and in those who had received contaminated blood products. However by 1990s, it was clear that heterosexual transmission (between men and women) had actually spread it wider.
In 1999, World Health Organization (WHO) announced that HIV/AIDS had become the fourth biggest killer worldwide. Now it was affecting families as well as children. Use of barrier contraception (condoms) were a mainstay in reducing transmission of HIV between men and women.
While on one hand, use of condoms was promoted, religious taboos were a cause for a controversy. Some thought that promoting moral values, and avoiding multiple sexual partners should be a dominant message. It took a while for this controversy between “ideal vs practical” to settle down.
Family values and HIV prevention
Some stamps portrayed families in their postage stamps. A hidden message was to keep the values, such as having a single faithful partner. This was a counter strategy, especially when contraception was a religious taboo. It also conveyed that prevention of HIV would lead to a healthy family.
A postage stamp set from Costa-Rica was more bold. One stamp in the set shows a single person, leaning against a wall. This person is probably lonely, depressed and vulnerable. The second stamp shows a family, and others out there in the open. Walls of despair are gone, and openness of a healthy family and community is in.
Need for support and hope
At the dawn of the millennium, the epidemic was still fueled by social inequalities, poverty, and limited resources for prevention and care. Stigma surrounding the disease remained a significant issue. Postal omnibus was also aimed to address these social issues. Human touch is an important aspect of care, and postage issues from Chile emphasized this need.
While tests for diagnosis and treatment against HIV was available, its reach was yet to be fully expanded. Win, was however in sight.
At the dawn of the millennium, hope for a better future was a key message. Hope was portrayed in form of a victory that was in sight. Happiness and being protected from HIV fueled this hope.
UPAEP issue from Columbia, has happy humans beneath a protective umbrella. It is an umbrella of love that is keeping HIV away from us.
International cooperation
Victory against HIV-AIDS was also a story of international cooperation. By the year 2000, effective treatments were discovered, but it was expensive for many. International cooperation, and funding was necessary that rich as well as poor nations had access to it. Aruba a tiny island in the Caribbean is a smallest member of UPAEP. Its postage stamp set portrayed collaboration between member countries, and a global movement in our struggle against AIDS in its two stamp set.
Twenty five years since this campaign, HIV transmission rates are low and 100% of known individuals with the disease are on treatment. We already have a zero transmission targets. A key scientific principle of this target is that a person with HIV who is on effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) and has an undetectable viral load cannot transmit the virus sexually, a concept known as undetectable = untransmittable (U=U). We hope to achieve this by the year 2030.
