The outing of those living with HIV
“It was a reporter. He stuck his head in the window and he said to my father: “Do you have any comment about your son having HIV?”
Gareth Thomas, Wales ex-rugby player, on being outed by the media.
In the decades since the first diagnosis of HIV in the UK there has been a revolution in the treatment and prevention of the condition. Ending all new cases of HIV within this generation is now a reachable ambition and a universal goal.
Despite this progress, there is still considerable societal stigma surrounding the virus. It is because of this stigma that those handling the information of people living with HIV must treat it with the utmost care and protection.
Gareth Thomas detailed the way in which he was forced by journalists to disclose his HIV status to his family. However, this is not just a concern for those in the public eye. It also affects the estimated 100,000 people in the UK living with HIV.
The Information Commissioner’s Office has taken action against a number of organisations who have disclosed people’s HIV status, through easily preventable errors such as clumsy uses of email distribution lists. These mistakes can expose those living with HIV to discrimination from wider society, and erode their trust in the services and institutions that may be vital to helping them.