One way in which stigma works is that people often think that HIV is about other kinds of people, that it isn’t in their own social world. So when I teach about the HIV epidemic to my students in medical anthropology, I do so from the perspective of someone openly living with HIV. It is my hope that doing so counters the impression that HIV is ‘out there’ somewhere, rather, it is in here with us.
Social stigma and social marginalisation are really harmful aspects of the epidemic. In many respects, the stigma is the biggest problem for those of us living with HIV who have access to medication and are actually pretty healthy in every respect.