Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday November 27, 2001
Patricia Reaney
A review by the Terrence Higgins Trust charity of AIDS research showed that one in five people with HIV have encountered discrimination during the last 12 months.
They have been refused medical treatment, ostracized by friends, embarrassed by doctors or forced to work difficult shifts because of their HIV status.
People feel they have to keep their illness a secret and they avoid certain situations which limit their involvement in everyday life.
"You cannot blame someone with HIV for not wanting to disclose (their status) if one person in five with HIV has experienced discrimination in the last year," said Lisa Power, the head of policy and research at the trust.
But she said the problem could be overcome with new legislation and by challenging the attitudes that make the lives of HIV positive people a misery.
NEED TO DISPEL IGNORANCE
"There is a need to dispel ignorance, to challenge prejudice and to support people with HIV in managing their lives through that prejudice," she added in an interview.
The prejudice and discrimination is not as blatant as it was 20 years ago but Power said it is more insidious. People may not be sacked from their jobs for being HIV positive but they could be forced to work difficult shifts and unsocial hours.
"The prejudice is still bad and people are regularly experiencing it but it is the ways they are experiencing it that has changed," said Power.
It was important to stamp out prejudice because it could prevent people from being tested and receiving treatment and support, she added.
The report released ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1, urged the government to back a public information campaign to stamp out prejudice about HIV/AIDS.
It also called for the extension of the Disability Discrimination Act to cover medical conditions as soon as they are diagnosed, rather than when symptoms occur.
The trust also wants better training about HIV for all healthcare staff because the knowledge of the illness varies among medical and social care professionals.
Health Minister Lord Hunt said the government supported the initiative and had included steps to address the prejudice in its National Strategy on HIV and Sexual Health.
"This report sets out very clearly both the obvious and the hidden ways in which prejudice and discrimination affect people with HIV," he said in a statement.
More than 33,000 people in Britain are thought to be infected with HIV but up to a third of them are not aware of it because they have not been tested for the virus.
The success of antiretroviral drugs means that fewer people are dying of AIDS and more people are living with HIV than ever before. The number of HIV sufferers in Britain is expected to rise by 50 percent in the next five years.
More than 50 percent of the 3,617 new infections reported in Britain in 2000 were through heterosexual sex, a five percent increase on the previous year.
Forty-one percent were infected through homosexual sex, three percent acquired the virus through intravenous drug use and an equal number through mother-to-child transmission.
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