World AIDS Day December 1st: As the gay community gears up to acknowledge the reality of HIV infection in our midst and the stigma too often directed at people with the virus the NZ AIDS Foundation is urging those without HIV to try to avoid hiding their diagnosis out of fear. Ross Burden The NZAF is reflecting on revelations earlier this week that celebrity chef and Masterchef judge Ross Burden's family only learned he was HIV-positive when it was noted in a recently released coroner's report on his death last July of a legionella infection at Auckland Hospital. “This tragic case appears to be an example of how isolating HIV can be for people. Sadly too many people keep their HIV diagnosis secret for fear of the negative reactions they may get from others. In some cases family are only too willing to be supportive but self-stigma and fear can cut a person with the virus off from this care. That’s why, it is important to have a meaningful conversation and tackle stigma,” says Shaun Robinson, Executive Director of the NZAF Research in recent years has shown that even successful and confident HIV-positive people can be subject to stigma in situations such as their workplace and that fear of such stigma frequently leads them to avoid such possibilities and lead a less than full life. The Foundation has produced a video clip in which a succession of HIV-positive people speak out to remind the public that HIV infection does not define them and that they continue to be people with lives, interests, families and friends.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 27th November 2014 - 11:35pm