This Friday is World AIDS Day. That day, three nurses from the UMCG will tour the nursing wards with ‘World AIDS Day cakes’.
The nurses at the Infectious Diseases Clinic thus pay attention to the stigma in healthcare that HIV patients experience; this stigma has increased in recent years. Research shows that people with HIV experience less stigma among friends and family, but more stigma in healthcare.
In a healthcare setting, people with HIV are often treated differently than people without HIV. This is usually because healthcare professionals sometimes have an unrealistic fear of transmitting the virus. The three nurse specialists of the Infectious Diseases Outpatient Clinic offer cakes and at the same time discuss the stigma that healthcare providers feel when caring for a patient with HIV. The aim of this is to contribute to reducing this stigma among healthcare providers in the UMCG. They cannot reach all healthcare providers on this day, but they are making a start on a number of nursing wards in the hospital.
HIV is now an easily treatable condition that allows people to live to the same age as people without HIV, but the stigma has a major impact on the quality of life of people with HIV. Some people with HIV are less adherent to treatment or even avoid care. A 2020 survey found that 13 percent avoid care because of that stigma. The HIV population is getting older, so this is a worrying development.
2023-11-29 10:46:00
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