AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), the first definition of infection in the 1980s, was attributed to all prejudices and hate speeches related to infection. so many years, especially broadcast media, everything is still on the definition of AIDS infection in Turkey are explained and stamping out these concepts are reproduced every day.
AIDS is a stage in which the immune system cannot function if HIV infection is left untreated and opportunistic infections occur. However, in social perception AIDS is becoming the disease of HIV-infected individuals and is directly matched to death. It also causes social isolation of individuals living with HIV through its infectious property.
AIDS is not a disease but a stage that individuals encounter if HIV infection is not treated. HIV-infected people are healthy individuals living with HIV, not AIDS. Individuals living with HIV during the AIDS phase are not condemned to death but can be treated and returned to their healthy days.
In countries where HIV treatment is available, notification rates of HIV cases have declined significantly during the AIDS phase. Deaths have been reduced due to HIV infection and AIDS infections. Treatment enables individuals living with HIV to leave this stage and live a healthy life.
According to the results of awareness research conducted by Hacettepe University and Başkent University, 77% of the population does not know anything about HIV infection. Today, however, everyone has ideas about AIDS that are inaccurate, not based on an up-to-date source, mostly from newspapers, TVs and internet broadcasts where stigmatization and prejudices are legitimized.
The meanings attributed to the concept of AIDS continue to adversely affect the social lives of individuals living with HIV, whether or not they have AIDS.
In the light of all this information, as in scientific sources, we do not care about spreading the use of HIV, but the breaking of stigma and prejudices attributed to AIDS.
However, it should be kept in mind that in countries where access to treatment is not possible, HIV infection continues to come to the AIDS stage, causing deaths. Our main goal is to provide the right of people living with HIV during the AIDS stage to access treatment and to provide cheap and accessible treatment opportunities to everyone.