Theresa May: We have to 'wipe out' HIV stigma

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38145548

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Theresa May has condemned the continuing stigma against people living with HIV in the UK, calling it an 'unacceptable stain on our society'.

Speaking in a video message made for the National AIDS Trust's World AIDS Day campaign, the Prime Minister praised the advances made in the treatment and prevention of HIV but added:

"For all the progress in treatment and prevention of HIV, public attitudes have not progressed as far or as fast."

A barrier to being tested

The latest UK HIV stigma index found almost one in five respondents living with HIV in the UK have had suicidal thoughts in the past 12 months and one fifth of participants reported verbal harassment or threats over the last year as result of their HIV status.

Deborah Gold, Chief Executive of the National AIDS Trust, told BBC Radio 5 live: "The impact of stigma is really one of the biggest barriers, both to people living with HIV living good happy lives, and people at risk of HIV accessing the testing and the treatment they need in a timely fashion".

The Executive Director of the Elton John Aids Foundation said pressure on people who provide services is another problem:

"We know that a lot of doctors are very nervous to raise the issue of an HIV test with people, despite the fact that 17% of people in the UK are undiagnosed, or don't know they are infected, because they feel somehow that is a judgement".

'You don't let it out publicly'

Andy Evans lives with HIV and is a haemophiliac. He contracted it through a contaminated blood supply. He lives in a small village in the UK and said he just doesn't talk about his status:

"You don't tell people in a small community, you don't look for support from your neighbours, you look for support on the internet, you look for support from people who are going through the same thing, you don't let it out publicly."

Chris in South East London was diagnosed in his early fifties, he told 5 live's Sarah Brett and Nihal Arthanayake one of the issues is stigma within the gay community:

"I suspect that's why people in the community don't want to take tests necessarily, because of the reaction they are going to get within dating sites saying we want clean people ie. HIV is dirty."

Awareness

Tom Hayes is HIV positive, and the Editor in chief of 'beyondpositive', an online lifestyle magazine for people living with HIV, he described visiting his GP shortly after he was diagnosed in a small village in Worcestershire:

"When I went in all of our files were stacked on the reception desk, mine was on the top and it had HIV scrawled across the front of the folder in big red marker pen, out in the open.... That made me feel I was a leper."

To get rid of the problem of stigma, Mr Hayes believes education is essential. The last general public information campaign for HIV was the 1987 Government advertisement with its image of a tombstone being chiselled with the word 'AIDS' and the message 'Don't Die of Ignorance'.

Mr Hayes believes it is time for another campaign, not just one directed at the gay community:

"There needs to be something bigger, something more general. If we can have it for asthma, healthy eating, obesity and smoking, can we not have one for HIV?"

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