Cure Stigma | Campaign on Educating and Raising Awareness on HIV & AIDS
The HIV infection constitutes a major problem globally, since the beginning of the epidemic in 1980. The knowledge that the scientific community has acquired, has changed drastically the conditions that people living with HIV face.
Despite the access of people living with HIV in treatment and the change in the outcome of their lives, the stigma surrounding HIV remains. People living with HIV face difficulties in their access to healthcare services as well as discrimination, even from healthcare professionals.
HelMSIC – Hellenic Medical Students International Committee through the Standing Committee on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights including HIV & AIDS (SCORRA), having set Sexuality Education as this year’s priority, organized the campaign Cure Stigma in order to inform medical students and raise awareness about HIV and AIDS. The campaign took place from the 23rd of November to the 1st of December, the World AIDS Day.
The campaign’s targets were:
- Transmitting practical knowledge about HIV to future healthcare providers
- Raising awareness in medical students about the stigma around HIV and AIDS
- Informing medical students about the access of people living with HIV to healthcare
The main topics of the campaign were:
- Basic facts about the HIV infection – definitions, ways of transmission, ways of protection, testing, treatment
- HIV 2020 current status – the international status of HIV and the influence of COVID-19
- Frequently asked questions – important knowledge about HIV and AIDS
- Access of people living with HIV to healthcare
- The role of medical students
The campaign also included the Webinar “HIV | Holistic approach to healthcare” in cooperation with the association of Positive Voice – Association of people living with HIV in Greece. The webinar’s speakers were the infectious disease specialist, Dr. Mparmpounakis Emmanouil, and Mr.r Elias Myrsinias, on behalf of Positive Voice.