Half of people with HIV avoid healthcare because of stigma, study finds

Report found 20% of people living with HIV report having been denied service in the past 12 months.

More than half of people with HIV have avoided healthcare because they worry about how they will be treated by healthcare workers, according to a new study.

The research, led by Dr Elena Vaughan at the Health Promotion Research Centre in the University of Galway, in collaboration with HIV Ireland, also found 40% of healthcare workers say they would worry, at least a little, about drawing blood from a person living with HIV.

The report, titled 'HIV-related Stigma in Healthcare Settings in Ireland', also found one in five of the 298 healthcare workers report using special measures they would not use with other patients.

The research was launched on Tuesday at the offices of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.

HIV Ireland executive director Stephen O’Hare said the fact that more than half of the 89 people with HIV who were surveyed reported avoiding healthcare because of fear of how they will be treated was concerning.

People are not accessing the care that they need and that obviously has a very detrimental effect. We want to build a system where people have confidence that the care they receive will be free of stigma.” 

“There needs to be a system where people are educated to understand HIV, they understand HIV prevention and they are not afraid to provide the service to people with HIV that they would provide to anybody else."

The report also found:

• 80% of healthcare workers have not received training in stigma and discrimination; 
• 25% of healthcare workers say they have observed a colleague talking badly about a person living with HIV at least once in the past 12 months;
• 44% of people living with HIV report being asked how they got HIV by a healthcare worker; 
• 20% of people living with HIV report having been denied service in the past 12 months; 
• 24% reported having been told to come back later, made to wait, or put last in a queue when attending for appointments.

Dr Vaughan said a positive finding of the research was that healthcare workers do not hold negative attitudes towards people living with HIV.

But she said: “A significant proportion still fear acquiring HIV through routine procedures, such as dressing wounds, and this appears to be driving stigmatising behaviours. 

"In the context of modern treatments, this fear is unnecessary, and where suspected exposure to HIV does occur, healthcare workers have access to post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), which can prevent the virus from taking hold.” 

Mr O’Hare said the report helped to identify areas “so we can reduce HIV stigma in our healthcare system in line with our global commitments”.