More than a thousand children living in the UK are known to have AIDS – and a further 20,000 children live in a family where one or more members is infected. The charity, Body & Soul, supports 2,000 families and most of them have to live in secrecy. Often the young people cannot tell their closest friends that they are HIV-positive. The majority of affected children do not even tell their schools. This month Body & Soul celebrates its tenth anniversary. Angela Robson met some of the young people they are supporting such as seventeen year old Max, who discovered he was HIV positive when at 13 he became ill.
November 2006 marked 25 years since the first case of AIDS was reported in the UK - today an estimated 63,500 adults are now living with HIV in the United Kingdom Yet it appears that the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS is increasing and the effect of this is driving those living with HIV into isolation and poverty. Lisa Power Head of Policy for the Terrence Higgins Trust and clinical psychologist Dr Diane Melvin join Martha Kearney to discuss why stigma and discrimination is increasing in the UK and what can be done to combat it.
