When thinking about the way you feel about negative attitudes and behaviour, a good place to start might be to try telling yourself how irrational and wrong stigma and discrimination are.

Both are usually based upon ignorance and prejudice.

There are some common misconceptions about HIV and it’s worth reminding yourself that these views are wrong:

In actual fact, HIV is difficult to catch.  It cannot be contracted through day-to-day contact and good hygiene practices are enough to protect healthcare workers.

You can prevent passing on HIV to your partners by having safer sex. Mother-to-child transmission of HIV can be prevented in nearly all cases with the right treatment and care.

Yes, untreated HIV can be fatal and people do still become ill with, or even die, because of HIV. But HIV treatment is highly effective. Doctors are now hopeful that people who receive HIV treatment at the right time and look after their general health will live a near-normal life span.

HIV treatment is highly cost-effective and enables people to live productive lives.

It’s much more expensive to treat somebody who is ill because of HIV than to provide HIV treatment.

Being diagnosed with HIV will change your life. Some people with HIV experience health problems, loneliness, exclusion, poverty or unhappiness. All too often, such experiences are related to the discrimination that people with HIV experience from others, the fear of being rejected, or because they blame themselves for the situation they are in.

But many HIV-positive people maintain and form new close relationships following their diagnosis, have the support of their families, have children without putting their partners or children at risk of HIV, have fulfilling sex lives, maintain and develop careers, buy homes and make plans for the future.

Understanding and challenging the stigma and discrimination that surround HIV can help you can make the most of your life with HIV.

First of all, this booklet is going to look at stigma, and provide some information that should help you understand and deal with it.

After that there is information on your legal rights that offer protection against discrimination.

There are many organisations that work for the rights and wellbeing of people with HIV, and their contact details are in included in this booklet.