An international study conducted by the British Red Cross revealed this week that HIV stigma knows no boundary. In Britain, for example, one in seven respondents aged 14 through 25 said they would not remain friends with someone diagnosed with HIV. What’s more, one in five of the respondents said that they would not care for a family member who was HIV positive. Only 32 percent of young Brits said they were concerned about contracting the virus (www.4rfv.co.uk, 11/26).
"The stigma and secrecy attached to HIV is having a direct impact on young people's ability worldwide to access information and talk openly about their fears and concerns about the spread of this devastating pandemic,” says Alyson Lewis, HIV adviser at the British Red Cross.
The survey questioned roughly 1,200 people in Britain, Ethiopia, South Africa and Kyrgyzstan—a country in which nearly half of all those interviewed said they would not remain friends with someone who becomes HIV positive.
Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
