Terrence Higgins Trust has been fighting discrimination for 25 years. It's time to take the gloves off

diana shaking hands. Photography by Tim Graham Photography

Twenty years after Diana, Princess of Wales shook hands with an AIDS patient and famously challenged people’s misconceptions surrounding the virus, many people still discriminate against people with HIV. Prejudice all too often means people with HIV become isolated.

It’s been 25 years since the press first reported on the mysterious illness that robbed people of their immune systems with horrific effects. Yet amazingly many of the myths of the late 80s – like ‘HIV can be caught just by shaking hands’ – continue to be believed today. This World AIDS Day, Terrence Higgins Trust wants to overturn these false beliefs. If we all work together, people with HIV will no longer have to face daily discrimination.

It is genuinely tragic that twenty years after Diana, Princess of Wales showed the world that HIV can’t be caught through skin contact by shaking hands with a man with HIV, myths about transmission of the virus still fuel shocking discriminatory behaviour.

With your help THT can campaign and educate and inform the public so that it's the stigma surrounding the virus that is demonised, not the people who live with it.

  • £30 – send ten of our latest research publications to major influencers such as MPs and journalists who can take direct action on our behalf to fight stigma and discrimination
  • £65 – pay for one counselling session for a person who has experienced HIV/AIDS-related discrimination
  • £125 – help train a campaigns volunteer to lobby local MPs
  • £5,000 – pay for a campaign stand for a five day political party conference, to convince ministers and backbenchers alike to oppose HIV-related discrimination

Top

  • True Or False?

    • Most babies born to HIV positive mothers will be HIV positive too?

      True

      False — Without any treatment, HIV-infected mothers would pass HIV to their newborns about 25% of the time. The risk drops to well below 1% with modern treatment and surgical intervention and avoiding breastfeeding.

      False

      False — Without any treatment, HIV-infected mothers would pass HIV to their newborns about 25% of the time. The risk drops to well below 1% with modern treatment and surgical intervention and avoiding breastfeeding.

  • Paul

    • Paul “It’s not the sort of thing you can talk to people about because however much you like to think it hasn’t, it still has a stigma attached.”
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