EU health commissioner urges end to HIV stigma

It is high time the stigma associated with HIV positive people and their families is broken down across the entirety of the EU, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides said on Tuesday.

Kyriakides’ statements were made after a visit to the Gregorios Pulmonology Clinic in Larnaca, where she received a briefing from doctors and medical staff regarding the challenges faced by HIV-positive individuals and their families.

“The goal is to break the prejudice and stigma against people living with HIV and their families, so that they can have access to all services and workplaces like anyone else,” she said.

The commissioner stressed that awareness about HIV and HIV-positive individuals should not be limited to December 1, the international day dedicated to it.

“Prejudice and stigma must be tackled on a daily basis, with information and sensitivity, starting from young ages ad expanding to workplaces, medical spaces, hospitals, everywhere.”

Kyriakides added that she spoke to a patient at the clinic and “what we said was the day must come that the people that visit Gregorios Clinic should not feel they should hide their face or worry that someone will see them when they walk past the doorstop.

“It should be a clinic like all the rest in our hospitals, that offer medical care.”

The commissioner thanked the staff at the clinic, located within Larnaca General Hospital, for their acceptance of HIV-positive individuals.

She specified there are challenges “but that is why we’re here. To face them and solve the problems. For us to finally realise that we should speak openly without stigma, without fear and prejudice for HIV positive persons.”

For his part, George Siakallis, an Infectious Diseases doctor at the Gregorian Clinic thanked the EU Commissioner for her visit, and noted that “perhaps the biggest challenge we face in 2024 is to communicate properly what HIV infection is.”

“It is our duty, as a society, to give back to the people we care for a better quality of life by removing stigmatising attitudes and practices and embracing all of the clinic’s beneficiaries in a broader community,” she said.

A recent study carried out with 150 Cypriot HIV-positive individuals revealed less than half of Cyprus’ HIV-positive population has a good quality of life, as social stigma continues to shun many carriers and many struggle to find work.

A recent study involving 150 Cypriot HIV-positive individuals revealed that less than half of Cyprus’s HIV-positive population enjoys a good quality of life due to ongoing social stigma, which often hinders employment opportunities.