Menu
Ireland's political and cultural magazine
56 April 2023 April 2023 PB
How HIV IS transmitted
How HIV IS NOT
transmitted
for a country where treatment is easily accessible
and free of charge.
In his essay ‘Ireland in the age of AIDS: The
Cultural Politics of the Stigma’, Cormac O’Brien
looks at the representation of HIV patients in Irish
media since the beginning of the crisis. The two
most prominent are in the RTÉ show ‘Fair City’ of
1999 and the play ‘The Pride of Parnell Street’, by
Sebastian Barry. They both seem to have
indulged the myth that only deviant gay people
or junkies contract it. The symptoms described
are plague-like which entertains the idea that
HIV/AIDS can be transmitted through contact
with patients, and the characters die of AIDS
while treatments were already available at that
time.
Even though Ireland seems to have moved
away from homophobia in recent years, it
remains in isolated places. Some churches are
homophobic and the recent rise of a far-right
constituency facilitates regressive attitudes to
LGBTQ+ rights.
HIV Ireland notes that: “Sexually Transmitted
Infections (STIs) are often seen as dierent, less
significant health issues because of their
association with sex. HIV is often associated with
behaviours, or with groups of people, deemed
immoral. This is often reflected in the media, for
example in the media’s interest in how a person
acquired HIV. HIV is a public health issue; framing
HIV as a moral issue can be stigmatising”.
We need to do better.
It has to be said first that HIV and AIDS are two
dierent things. HIV (Human Immunodeficiency
Virus) is a virus that can be transmitted from one
person to the other. While AIDS (Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome) describes potentially life-
threatening illnesses and infections when the
patient has been infected by the virus. Unlike HIV,
AIDS is a medical condition.
To stop potential transmission, there are two
options.
First, HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis has to be
taken if you are at risk of contracting HIV. It
protects you from contracting HIV. It is around
99% eective.
Second, post-exposure prophylaxis is
emergency treatment mostly after the patient has
had one single at-risk exposure. It must be
administered within 72 hours. Every moment
counts and it must be taken for 28 days. It is
around 80% eective.
The safest prevention is to use condoms for any
type of penetrative sex and seek specific centres
that provide clean needles if you struggle with
addiction.
There is a perception that HIV/AIDS can only
attack gay men and therefore cannot aect
straight people, making them less likely to get
tested regularly or to even protect themselves
during intercourse since they believe they are not
at risk. This stigmatisation leaves people seeking
treatment at a very late stage of transmission
which can make it inecient, an avoidable failure
T
here was an increase in AIDS cases in
Ireland from 401 in 2021 to 644 in
2022 according to the most recent
Health Protection Surveillance Centre
(HPSC) report to the HSE. 70% of those
cases had already been diagnosed outside of
Ireland.
Among those with known region of origin, the
vast majority of HIV diagnoses (88%) are among
migrants, defined as persons originating outside
the country in which they were diagnosed. The
proportion of cases among migrants in 2022 was
higher than in previous years. 32% of those
aected are from Latin America and the Caribbean
and 25% are from sub-Saharan Africa.
While immigration and the refugee crisis in
Ireland explain the increase in cases in Ireland.
They don’t explain the increase of cases observed
in straight women. The majority of HIV diagnoses
(65%) are among males but a higher proportion
of HIV diagnoses (29%) are among females,
compared to recent years. Gay and bisexual men
and men who have sex with men account for 55%
of HIV diagnoses.
HIV diagnoses decreased by 8% in 2021 and
by 17% in 2020. The rate in 2021 (8.4 per 100,000
population) was the lowest since 2014. Some of
the decline in 2020 and 2021 may be the result
of restrictions on social interactions imposed due
to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Provisional data for 2022 suggest the majority
of HIV diagnoses (68%) are in those aged
between 25 and 44 years.
It is notable that Ireland, a country that has
been oering treatment since 1996, still has a
low level of ‘AIDS intelligence’ and that
transmission keeps happening even though
condoms have been made free and accessible.
To understand this crisis we have to undo
decades of stigma, and focus on the homophobic
and conservative system that allows it to prosper
and spread. A 2017 survey among people with
AIDS by HIV Ireland found “the main reason
respondents felt stigmatised other than their HIV
status was due to their sexual orientation (39%
of respondents). Other reasons for stigmatisation
included being a member of a minority group
(7%), being a migrant worker (7%) and being an
injecting drug user (7%)”.
The stigma on HIV and AIDS has led to its
perception as a plague-like illness: a death
sentence.
Destigmatise AIDS
Society needs to recognise the science of HIV and AIDS,
and staunch old and new vehicles for homophobia
By Ava Liange
CULTURE
