HIV Stigma Audit Report

NAPWA (the National Association of People Living With HIV/AIDS) has released a significant study into the issue of HIV and stigma in the community. It looks majorly interesting, although I've only just read the Executive Summary and Recomendations so far. The report (pdf):
http://napwa.org.au/files/napwa_stigma_audit_report.pdf

And a short description of it from the NAPWA site:

Over the past two years NAPWA, in collaboration with the National Centre in HIV Social Research UNSW, has conducted social research into the experiences and effects of stigma on the lives of people living with HIV. What we found is both encouraging and challenging. We were encouraged by the many signs of resilience among people with HIV. Despite this major life challenge, most are getting on with leading fulfilling lives and bounce back from setbacks when they arise. Some of the challenges include ongoing stigma in many areas of life that we usually turn to for support: our sexual partners and our communities. The media was also singled out as an ongoing source of stigma. more

One of the most interesting things about this report is a call to get rid of the NSW law requiring people to disclose their HIV status before having sex, and rather simply to have a requirement to take "reasonable measures". I didn't know but NSW is the only Australian state that has this law.

It also seeks the abolishment of NSW laws requiring HIV-positive people to tell sexual partners of their status. While sexually transmissible infection laws have recently been amended to allow ''reasonable precautions'' to be used as a defence, NSW is the only state where people with HIV are still compelled to disclose their status to sexual partners. Read more