HIV: Living With the Stigma - a Video

nIntroduction:

More people in the UK live with HIV now than in the 1980s, but the stigma associated with the disease has not gone away, and failures in diagnosis and confidentiality remain problematic.

 

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 What is even more sad than the video above, are many of the comments posted about this video on You Tube. I have copied some below. As healthcare workers, our job is not to judge our patients; instead, it is to treat our patients. Please forgive the rude and vulgar language in the comments below. This vulgar language is one of the "difficult realities of living with HIV, and if you are HIV positive this vulgar language and cruelty is directed at you!

  • "How to cure HIV: don't take poz loads from HIV+ men regularly into your anus."
  • "What a load of shit! Most gay men i know and have met are that slutty they know the risks yet still bareback anyway then they cry victim when they contract hiv,, i have ZERO sympathy for someone that caught it through unsafe sex or sharing needles, anyone else fair enough. I don't hate said people i just hate their whoa is me bullshit, own up to your shit."
  • "What stigma? It's not like you have to tell people you have HIV (unless you're planning on having sex with them). You can't blame people for being wary, one fuck up and you're doomed."
  • "The black people brought this disease into the world, god knows what they are carrying into Europe from Syria, Ebola 2"