Experiences of stigma

Experiences of stigma features

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  Getting tough on criminalisation

  “Nothing short of barbaric.” This was the comment of a BBC presenter, confronted with the number and sheer arbitrary injustice of criminal convictions of people accused of transmitting...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Will a long life be a good one?

  People with HIV are now living into old age – an old age many regard with fear, as Lisa Power from the Terrence Higgins Trust finds...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Punching fog – how people with HIV are tackling stigma worldwide

  The UK theme of this World AIDS Day is ‘HIV: Reality’, building on last year’s theme of ‘Respect and Protect’. The reality is that HIV status continues...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Stigma begins at home

  The stigma attached to having HIV is one of the most all-pervasive aspects of living with the virus. HTU plans a series of articles addressing this complex subject....

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  The consequences of fear

  How the myth of ‘health tourism’ is harming people with HIV, by Edwin J Bernard ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  HIV stigma, treatment and prevention

  Review of the impact of stigma on HIV treatment, prevention and care in resource-limited settings....

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

Experiences of stigma in your own words

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  It takes two to tango - my family and diagnosis

  Let me tell you about telling some family members that I have HIV. I called my brother the night I was diagnosed. I wanted to tell him...

  From:In your own words

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  The sex police

  I met Amy through a friend – a friend who knew my HIV status. We got on really well and she asked if I wanted...

  From:In your own words

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  My hero!

  Sex. It’s messy, fraught with all sorts of psychological problems and yes, it’s obviously what got me into this whole predicament in the first place....

  From:In your own words

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  Having a baby

  I want my experiences to give hope to other people – things do not have to end when you find out that you have HIV. In...

  From:In your own words

Experiences of stigma news from aidsmap

• Young gay men with HIV in the UK worry about disclosure, transmission and prosecution – older ones about confidence and sex

  A large majority of gay men in the UK with HIV describe having one or more problems with sex, an analysis of a survey originally published in 2009 reveals. Amongst other problems, the analysis of the 2009 What do you ...

  07 November 2012 | Gus Cairns

• How to tackle HIV stigma among health care workers

  Stemming in part from negative associations with the virus itself, and in part from marginalisation of populations highly impacted by the virus, stigma and discrimination has long dissuaded people from accessing HIV-related services. Studies presented last week at the ...

  02 August 2012 | Mara Kardas-Nelson

• People with TB and HIV in South Africa face a double stigma

  People who have both tuberculosis (TB) and HIV experience “a unique and overlapping double stigma”, according to research published in the May issue of Social Science and Medicine. Having TB sends a signal that the person also has ...

  27 April 2012 | Roger Pebody

• HIV stigma divides and fragments gay communities

  A review of research studies has identified a growing division within gay communities, in which HIV-negative gay men associate mainly with other HIV-negative men, and HIV-positive men mostly mix with other HIV-positive men. Moreover stigma has negative impacts ...

  14 December 2011 | Roger Pebody

• Serodiscordant relationships for Africans in the UK often marked by uncertainty and disempowerment

  African people in the UK who are involved in a serodiscordant relationship (where one person has HIV and the other does not) have a wide range of experiences, according to a new study from Sigma Research. Nonetheless, two recurrent ...

  25 November 2011 | Roger Pebody

• MSM living in hostile social environments more likely to have negative feelings about sexuality, less likely to test for HIV

  The largest ever international study of the sexual health of men who have sex with men (MSM), which recruited men from across the European continent, has found clear links between the social environment men live in ...

  16 November 2011 | Roger Pebody

• The spirit is willing, but... sex in the HIV-positive over-50s

  Although the average age of the HIV-positive population is increasing, in both richer and poorer countries, and though sex between older people has often been cited as a possible risk factor for HIV, there has been surprisingly little investigation ...

  16 September 2011 | Gus Cairns

• Canadian study finds criminalisation confusion "chills" open and honest discussion of HIV risk-taking

  The lack of clarity over when a person with HIV has a legal obligation to disclose their HIV-positive status to a sexual partner is resulting in "anxiety, confusion and contradictory HIV counselling advice," according to a new study on ...

  23 August 2011 | Edwin J. Bernard

• High levels of mental distress, unprotected sex, needle sharing, unmet prevention needs found among HIV-infected patients in St Petersburg

  Risky sex and drug use are common among HIV-positive people in Russia, investigators report in AIDS and Behavior. Discrimination was a common experience, and there was a high prevalence of depression and anxiety. “Policies and public health programs ...

  12 May 2011 | Michael Carter

• Ugandan study shows why human rights are central to HIV prevention with African men who have sex with men

  In Kampala, Uganda, men who have sex with men who have suffered homophobic violence or abuse are five times more likely to be HIV-positive than other men, Joseph Barker told the Eighteenth International AIDS Conference on Tuesday. Just under ...

  22 July 2010 | Roger Pebody

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Experiences of stigma news selected from other sources

• I'm Sorry My HIV Offends You

  It's easy to be an ass on mobile dating apps because you can hide behind a cell phone. It's also easy to get your feelings hurt if you don't quickly come to terms with the fact that guys online can be vicious.

  17 March 2013 | Huffington Post

• HIV and the Power of Escape

  For the men of the AIDS Generation when death was an inevitability, sex and substances provided an escape, not only from the realities of AIDS, but also from the stigma and discrimination experienced by so many of us growing up as gay men.

  10 March 2013 | Huffington Post

• HIV positive jobseeker 'humiliated' by Kent job centre staff

  An HIV positive jobseeker said job centre staff made him declare his condition within earshot of others, and told him he had to see a disability adviser.

  20 February 2013 | BBC News

• The Increasingly Strange Case of Uncle Poodle

  Did Uncle Poodle lie about sending an ex-lover who infected him to jail? And why the hell would he do that?

  19 February 2013 | My Fabulous Disease

• HIV man loses restaurant loan 'for own protection'

  Bavarian police are investigating a case in which an HIV positive man who wanted to open a restaurant was refused a bank loan “for his own protection” before receiving death threats from neighbours, it was reported on Friday.

  15 February 2013 | The Local.de

• That Barebacking Thief-Whore: PrEP and Responsibility

  I’m fast approaching the four-month anniversary of “My Life on PrEP,” a milestone that I imagine equal parts of you are either thrilled or disgusted to see pass. You've made your views about me and my ideas plain, which I have honestly appreciated - there is much insight to be gained from these accusations and slanderous, mean-spirited comments.

  08 February 2013 | Frontiers LA

• Israeli physicians could get green light to deny HIV treatment

  The ethics committee of the Israel Medical Association is pointedly refusing to tell doctors that they must treat HIV carriers in all instances.

  08 January 2013 | Haaretz

• Low prevalence, high stigma in Bangladesh

  Even though HIV prevalence in Bangladesh is as low as 0.1 percent of the 160 million population, experts fear that widespread discrimination towards people who test positive for HIV may leave infections unreported.

  02 January 2013 | Google Alerts HIV

• We Are Here: LGBTI in Uganda

  "American-born gay photographer D. David Robinson collected portraits and first-person accounts from lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersex Ugandans, then turned to The Advocate to offer these brave activists a forum to elevate their stories in their own words."

  02 January 2013 | The Advocate

• Dr Steve Taylor: How HIV Stigma Still Kills

  A quarter of those with HIV in the UK are entirely unaware of their status, and it's in large part because people are scared to take the simple test that could allay their fears or get them on life-saving treatment. People are still dying of HIV - and it's because stigma is preventing us diagnosing them in time.

  17 December 2012 | Huffington Post UK

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