Calzavara (Milan checkpoint): ‘Enough stigma or you won’t be able to beat HIV’

“Today we live in an era where scientific advances and great achievements should help put an end to the spread of the HIV virus. Instead, the virus continues to spread. This is mainly because discrimination continues to be the biggest monster hurled at people living with HIV. Stigma and fear create a situation in which people do not want to know their serological status. Until we dismantle this paradigm we will not be able to defeat the virus and reach the goal of ‘zero infections by 2030’ “. Speaking is Daniele Calzavara, coordinator of the Milano checkpoint patient association and one of the protagonists of Michela Chimenti’s documentary ‘Stigma invisibile’, created as part of the ‘Together we can stop the virus’ project, promoted by Gilead Science Italia and projected on the eve of World AIDS Day. Calzavara went on to explain what it means to be part of an association of patients with HIV: “In our association, but this happens in most associations, people with HIV, or in any case the people affected by HIV, find themselves approaching equal with the people who frequent the association. This has extraordinary effects because it is no longer a frontal relationship, as that of the doctor and the patient can be, but instead it is a relationship as an equal, without any prejudice and without any judgment. In our association, any form of judgment is suspended with respect to the people who access the services. This is very important and has very, very good effects with respect to the choice of path, prevention strategies and with respect to one’s own life choices “.