Official URL: http://positivenow.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/H...

Three decades after the first campaigns to raise awareness about AIDS, many people living with HIV still feel silenced, isolated, judged, fearful, and excluded. Three decades after the first campaigns to raise awareness about HIV, people still hold prejudices that stem from their ignorance and lack of education about HIV. This document invites all of us to reflect on our own responsibilities in relation to HIV and to people living with HIV. It is estimated by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control that around 30% of people living with HIV in Europe are unaware of their status. Many people still don’t understand that being HIV positive is not the same thing as having AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), and that it does not mean that one’s condition will necessarily progress to AIDS. Still all of us, whether living with HIV or not, want to belong and be treated as equal members of our society.