AIDS advocacy groups launch first ‘Zero HIV Stigma Day’
A consortium of four community, medical, and urban health organizations announced they have designated July 21 as the first Zero HIV Stigma Day as a new international awareness day drawing attention to the “persistent levels of stigma experienced by people living with and affected by HIV.” A statement released by the four groups organizing Zero HIV Stigma Day says July 21 was chosen to commemorate the birthday of the late South African AIDS activist Prudence Mabele, who advocated for the rights of women and children living with HIV and against gender related violence.
Organizers say Mabele was the first Black South African woman to publicly share her HIV status in 1992. She died in 2017. “In this fifth decade of the global HIV pandemic, stigma continues to undermine progress and, in combination with fear and shame, is still driving late diagnosis of HIV in a way that is unacceptable and entirely preventable,” said Parminder Sekhon, CEO of NAZ, a minority-led HIV and sexual health organization in the United Kingdom that has provided AIDS-related services and care for more than 30 years.
NAZ is one of the four groups organizing Zero HIV Stigma Day. “If we are to have any hope of ending HIV and crossing the finishing line together, we must join forces, voice by voice, to end HIV stigma,” Sekhon said in the statement.
The other organizations that joined NAZ to launch Zero HIV Stigma Day include the D.C.-based International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC); Global HIV Collaborative, which says it works to improve HIV outcomes for the Black community globally; and Fast-Track Institute, which was created to support cities and municipalities worldwide in their efforts end the AIDS pandemic and other diseases. “As a
