But even worse is the way the media sometimes implies that Africans are
largely responsible for the worrying HIV situation in this country, often
putting forward the notion that HIV is either a gay issue or an African
one.
Most of the few European heterosexual women who have gone public with
their status in the media, have said that they contracted HIV from a partner
who either turned out to be homosexual or an African they had met while
living in Africa or on a visit. Unfortunately, this just reinforces the
stereotypes.
It also lends to the blame culture. With HIV, it's now usually about "those
bloody Africans bringing their bloody diseases here" or "those
nasty gay men, they get what they deserve." Prejudices are kept alive
and well and everybody has one more reason to dislike people that weren't
liked in the first place.
This stigmatisation is just one of the many reasons why Africans in the
UK find things difficult when it comes to living with HIV. There is the
perception that healthcare officials will look on them in much the same
way as they feel society at large does: that they don't belong here, that
they've brought disease here and that they are nothing but a bunch people
of a lower intellect, with little or no education and are only here to
see what they can sponge off the UK's 'generous benefits system'.
This may explain to some extent, the high number of late presentations
in the
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But what concerns me most of all is the way this stigmatisation can make
