LGBT History Month: "Fear and discrimination" driving HIV stigma, says Eddystone Trust
They treat people with HIV in Gloucestershire and say more education is needed
An HIV charity in Gloucestershire says stigma surrounding the disease isn't far off what it used to be in the late 1980s.
The Eddystone Trust works with people living with HIV in Gloucestershire, and across the South West, by providing emotional and medical support.
The conversation around HIV and AIDS have been amplified in recent weeks following the arrival of Channel 4's It's a Sin which follows a group of gay men in the backdrop of the epidemic in the 1980s.
Greatest Hits Radio spoke to Naomi Cooper, sexual health prevention and community health worker at the Eddystone Trust about the stigma of HIV which is still alive today and how the walls can be broken down to normalise the conversation around it.
"It's about fear and discrimination"
"Attitudes have changed as treatment and medication has, but I think there's a proportion of people where stigma sticks.
"It's the association with how you contract the disease, such as through sex, which insinuates you've done something wrong and therefore it's essentially your fault.
"Those attitudes are still alive today. It's still surrounded by fear and along with that comes discrimination".
"Education is a massive part of prevention"
"You can't prevent if you don't know what you're preventing, so if we can educate from an early age I think we can make sure young people know that HIV can affect anybody.
"In fact, data from 2019 found that 59% of new diagnoses did not identify as gay or bisexual which shows that HIV prevention is something that everyone needs to think about.
"So it's really important that everyone has the same education as well so they're aware that it's out there but also so they know that it's not something to be completely fearful of.
The number of people ordering HIV Tests across England has seen a major spike.
According to the Terrence Higgins Trust, 8,207 test kits were booked on Monday 8 February. That is over 300% higher than the previous daily record of 2,709.