World Aids Day: HIV/Aids can be treated and prevented — but we have yet to cure the stigma

HIV is now a treatable condition and its transmission is preventable, yet we are seeing new cases every day

Will Kennedy says: 'Stigma remains a major barrier to testing, treatment, and prevention in Ireland.' Picture: iStock

Change has been a long time coming. While HIV is now a very treatable condition, and we have the means to prevent the ongoing transmission of the condition, we need to ask why new cases are being diagnosed every day?

On December 1, 2025, the world pauses to remember the lives lost to HIV/Aids, celebrate the progress made, and renew the fight to end the epidemic. But despite decades of scientific breakthroughs — from antiretroviral therapy, to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), to undetectable = untransmittable (U=U) — one insidious force continues to undermine every step forward: Stigma.