HIV and AIDS remain major health concerns. Medicine has advanced. HIV-positive individuals can now enjoy long healthy lives. Yet, society still holds many negative views toward those with the virus. This bias isolates people and creates obstacles to HIV testing, treatment, and prevention. We need to change these harmful attitudes to build a world that accepts, comprehends, and cares for everyone.
Stigma means any attitude or bias that belittles a person and their human rights. This includes those infected with HIV. Stigma has a negative impact on these individuals and their loved ones leading to poorer living conditions, less social support, and limited access to health services. The stigma linked to HIV and AIDS discourages people from getting tested seeking care, or even receiving a diagnosis. So, it’s crucial that we eliminate this stigma and reduce its effect on people’s lives.
HIV has an impact on the immune system. It targets CD4+ T cells, which play a key role to help the body fight infections. Without treatment, HIV keeps destroying the immune system. This can lead to AIDS in the end-the last stage of the virus. The good news? When doctors find HIV and patients follow their antiretroviral therapy, they can keep the virus levels quite low. This stops the virus from causing more damage or passing to other people.
HIV doesn’t spread through normal contact. You won’t get it from hugs, handshakes, or sharing meals with people. It spreads through body fluids such as blood and sexual fluids. Most people get it through unprotected sex or by using infected needles. Pregnant women can also pass the virus to their babies through their bodies during birth or when breastfeeding. Now you get it, which clears up a lot of fear and myth about the virus.
HIV and AIDS stigma has its roots in history, society, and ethical viewpoints. When HIV first appeared, many linked it to specific groups or ways of living. This created unfair treatment and blame. Worries about catching the virus, harsh views on sex and drugs, and old cultural taboos led to wrong ideas about the virus and those it affected.
Religious beliefs can make life harder for these individuals. Many cultures see HIV as God’s punishment for bad deeds, from their point of view. This leads to more unfair treatment and isolation of these people. A lack of learning and facts allows these myths to grow. It makes talking about HIV tough and lets false ideas spread.
HIV and AIDS stigma has an impact on people’s lives in keyways:
1. Mental Health Issues: HIV-positive people often face rejection from family or friends. This kind of rejection can make them sad, anxious, or ashamed. Such loneliness can harm a person’s mental health.
2. Fear of Testing and Treatment: People may fear being judged and discriminated against criticizing them if they decide to undergo a test or a treatment. ‘Taking away the results of any missed checkups only hurts our wellbeing, and it is likely to let the virus spread,’ the statement says.
3. Career and Social Challenges: Individuals with HIV are frequently victims of discrimination in the workplace and in public. By posting the painful experience on social media or speaking in the workplace, some people stand a chance of getting involved in the discussion, but it mainly concerns those who are not working. They may be fired, have fewer possibilities, or not be asked to par
4. Healthcare Gap: Stigma is an obstacle for healthcare. Unsatisfactory experiences about mental and emotional health could be distracting from the realization that at the heart of our personhood is our mental health and mental illness. It is noted that people may not want to see a doctor if they got any symptoms like the virus that could cause another catastrophic situation. Some people may also be scared to breach privacy or assume that the healthcare worker will not be able to communicate with them.
The fight against AIDS and HIV is a process, which calls for the use of a good and wise strategy as the first step in the process here:
1. Education and Awareness: Good education is crucial. Additionally, regular campaigns should be organized in the public domain to let everyone know in clear terms how HIV infects, how it can be stopped and the options for medical treatment are. Education on ART science and U=U (when someone with an undetectable viral load can’t spread the virus) can replace the old wrong ideas. Schools, workplaces, and the community should all offer education programs to inform people about HIV. The levels of knowledge or misconceptions (in terms of HIV) might differ depending on where the information is from.
2. Emotional Storytelling: The tales of human rights activists are deeply moving and send a powerful message to policymakers while they make the topic real to the public. There may be more of such discussions on social media platforms and in documentaries. This is the necessary first step in the campaign to end the horrible disadvantages associated with HIV and AIDS: writing, whether personally or speaking to a group, as humanly and unassumingly as it gets is the centre stage strategy. It is equally difficult to the one facing stigma that is why it is unavoidable.
3. A Few More Points: The laws against discrimination should be enacted. The citizens with HIV should get it cheap and with good quality health and care. We should also have quality rules to avoid any illiberal approaches.
4. Deconstructing Stereotypes in the Media: One of the most influential tools for rethinking social problems today is media. Excellent journalism can help to eliminate the negative stereotypes about HIV/AIDS by presenting authentic stories. As a result of this, the public will have a chance to witness the achievements of such people who have been infected with this virus. Furthermore, the media have succeeded in raising public awareness of the mechanism of HIV transmission, i.e. using social media. A team in Zambia made some online videos to teach the masses on how to prevent HIV and the necessity of knowing one’s status; Amazingly, the videos were viewed more than 3 million times, and the comments were positive.
5. Community Engagement: Local leaders as well as other community members play a central role in fighting the stigma of HIV/AIDS. They have influenced opinion and can argue for the credit and understanding of all people being over inclusion of only some. Within social support networks, individuals dealing with this issue find places where they can share experiences with others. The stigma of people’s lives, that is their ability to get tested and treated, is actually the one responsible for the delay of seeking help. The fear of stigmatization and discrimination becomes the reason most people decide not to go for an HIV test, and this is usually responsible for late diagnoses and inappropriate treatment, which in turn leads to a wider spread of the virus. The people should find out what the bad consequences of stigmatization are when it happens; that is when the process of its termination would take place in real terms. As a step to demonstrate to the others and foster discussion and communication about HIV, one can also attend the educational classes regularly and take part in community-engagement activities that will help to increase the knowledge.
6. Health Care Advancements: Healthcare professionals must undergo training so that they can be able to offer compassionate care without prejudice. This would help people feel more at ease and dare to open to the care they need, if their privacy is respected and there is mutual trust. Furthermore, the most effective and essential weapon of empowering an individual to lead the way towards their own battles in case of any disease is prevention like PrEP.
There are several global programs that one can visualize to tackle HIV stigma:
1. U=U Campaign (Undetectable = Untransmittable): This campaign makes the point that people with undetectable viral loads cannot transmit HIV. The campaign has changed the perspective of many people and helped the patients with the virus to live a healthy life.
2. Community Action in South Africa: A treatment action campaign which is the association of community action towards establishing equal treatment access and thus, the creation of environment awareness and the promotion of key revolutions of societal attitudes.
3. Celebrity Advocacy: Celebrities explaining HIV status in a way that people would think of it as a normal matter. Their own experiences will help society to accept individuals living with HIV with more grace.
Everybody has the power to reduce stigma:
Learn and Share: Get to know the truth behind HIV and discuss them with the rest of your friends.
Speak Out Against Unfairness: Dispute biased expressions or behaviors happening in your day-to-day life.
Help Advocacy Organizations: Spend your time or money to organizations that spread the message and assist those affected with HIV.
Keep an Open Mind: Respect people with HIV and at the same time, treat them with dignity without forgetting their worth.
Good Role Model: A good role model is. A good role model is one who has a passion, special talent, and a way of making others feel inspired. One of the best ways to become a role model is by speaking your story of how you managed to overcome any issues related to being HIV+ or tell people about your HIV diagnosis.
Awareness Education: Teaching ourselves of those people that are surrounding us can be very impactful for future the learning about the battling of HIV is based on keeping the stigma away. The more we understand, the more we can help others to choose the right actions for their prevention and treatment.
It takes bravery, caring, and dedication to fight the stigma against HIV and AIDS. We need to redirect the narrow-minded views and promote the idea in a positive way. Represented by the voice people’s concerns must be heard. By collaboration we will be capable of fostering a society wherein those who are HIV positive can live and function as any other person on earth but showing off the ones who are not discouraged and fighting their way through to a much better future.
