Ten people per week are diagnosed with HIV
The survey, launched online yesterday, will reveal how living with HIV affects the day-to-day lives of sufferers.
It will be followed by another on the general public’s views on people with HIV and their knowledge and awareness of the disease.
There were 485 new HIV diagnoses confirmed in Ireland in 2015. According to provisional figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, the number increased to 513 last year.
HIV Ireland executive director Niall Mulligan said it was crucial the reasons behind the continued increase of new HIV diagnoses in Ireland were understood.
He pointed out that the number of new HIV diagnoses had increased by 35% since 2011.
“Ireland now has an average of 10 people per week being diagnosed with HIV. Understanding more about people’s personal experiences of living with HIV will help in response to this very real public health challenge in Ireland today,” he said.
The National HIV Stigma Survey will remain live for six weeks. Interim results are expected to be available for Irish AIDS Day on June 15, with the full report launched towards the end of the year.
“We know that stigma can be one of the key barriers to people accessing treatment or even getting tested,” said Mr Mulligan. “We want to know how it is impacting on people’s lives and is it as bad as we think it is.”
He said it was 10 years since people living with HIV had been surveyed.
“What we want to do is have a wider trawl and get the views of people we don’t have contact with and find out if stigma and discrimination are still an issue for them.
“The general public also need to know that HIV is still a public health problem and learn more about what they can do to protect their personal health.”
