UNAIDS has released a new report showing how stigma and discrimination is creating barriers to accessing HIV prevention, testing and treatment services and putting lives at risk.

The report, Confronting Discrimination: Overcoming HIV-Related Stigma and Discrimination in Health-Care Settings and Beyond, was launched by the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé, on October 3 during the Human Rights Council Social Forum.

It shows that people living with HIV who experience high levels of HIV-related stigma are more than twice as likely to delay enrolment into care than people who do not perceive HIV-related stigma.

Often, people living with HIV avoid going to clinics for fear of having their status disclosed or of suffering further stigma and discrimination based on their HIV status.  When people living with HIV wait until they are very ill before seeking help, they are less likely to respond well to antiretroviral therapy.

The report highlights that these fears are not unfounded.  Across 19 countries with available data, one in four people living with HIV have experienced discrimination in health-care settings and one in three women living with HIV have experienced at least one form of discrimination in health-care settings related to their sexual and reproductive health.

In Tajikistan, one third of people living with HIV avoid going to a clinic, the report says.   

24 percent of people living with HIV in Kyrgyzstan and 19 percent of people living with HIV in Kazakhstan also avoid going to a clinic because of the HIV-related stigma.

Where programs have been put in place to respond to stigma and discrimination, access to services for HIV prevention, testing and treatment has improved. 

The report highlights that, in order to reach all people living with, or at risk of, HIV and to link them with HIV prevention and treatment services, the world must step forward and confront discrimination.

The Human Rights Council Social Forum took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from October 2 to October 4 under the theme of Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Context of the HIV Epidemic and Other Communicable Diseases and Epidemics.