SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan is backing this year’s World AIDS Day – taking place this Sunday 1 December – is urging people in Derry and throughout the North to support those living with HIV, improve their understanding of the condition and show their commitment to tackling HIV in Northern Ireland.
Mr Durkan is also supporting the National AIDS Trust’s #RibbonUP/#FactUp campaign which calls on people to “wear a red ribbon with pride” this World AIDS Day, as well as encourage people to think differently about HIV by learning five simple facts about the condition.
The five facts about HIV are:
1. If diagnosed and treated in time, people living with HIV live a normal lifespan.
2. There is no job which someone can’t do specifically because they have HIV.
3. Treatment can mean that people living with HIV are no longer infectious.
4. Men and women living with HIV can become parents of a HIV-free baby.
5. People living with HIV still face stigma and discrimination.
Despite the growing number of people living with HIV (around 100,000 in the UK), and improved treatment, public knowledge and awareness about HIV hasn’t kept pace and is actually declining.
Mr Durkan believes only by educating people about the reality of what it is like to live with HIV will we reduce the stigma that unfortunately many people living with the virus still face. Stigma also leads people to fear getting tested, which can have an impact on their health and increase the risk of HIV transmission.
Mr Durkan said: “I am proud to wear a red ribbon to mark this year’s World AIDS Day. With so many people still living with HIV, we must do more to improve prevention and testing, especially given 1 in 5 people with HIV remain undiagnosed, and almost half of people are still being diagnosed late.
“For people living with HIV, one of the biggest challenges is still stigma, which is often the result of ignorance about HIV and unnecessary fear. Stigma also stops some people from taking an HIV test.”
Mr Durkan concluded: “This World AIDS Day I am joining forces with the National AIDS Trust’s campaign to encourage more people in Derry and throughout the North to better understand HIV by learning these five simple facts about living with HIV.”
Deborah Jack, chief executive of the National AIDS Trust, said she was “really pleased” to see Mark Durkan using World AIDS Day to take a lead on the issue.
She added: “Tackling HIV stigma, by encouraging more people to learn more about HIV, is important to improve the lives of people living with HIV, and to encouraging more people to get tested.”
“Many people don’t know what it is like to live with HIV and that if people test early and are on effective treatment they can live a normal lifespan and are much less likely to pass on HIV to others.”
To download a copy of the Five Facts or learn more about World AIDS Day and HIV visit http://worldaidsday.org/act-aware.php
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