AIDS still exists, and the numbers speak for themselves. In 2024, 2,379 new HIV diagnoses were registered in Italy, an almost stable figure compared to the previous year. But what is worrying is something else: according to data from the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 60% of people discover the infection in an advanced stage, when the HIV virus has already compromised the immune system.
And almost one new diagnosis in five concerns children under 20. Five years from the goal set by the United Nations – to stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030 – we are still far away.
The problem is not the lack of tools: there are rapid tests, PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) and PEP (post-exposure), effective therapies and today also long-lasting injectables. The real problem lies in the fact that they are not used in a widespread and timely manner.
Why doesn’t prevention work? The shadow of prejudices
In short, in Italy, prevention cannot withstand the impact of reality. Why? Because stigma continues to shape public perception.
HIV is still associated with marginal behaviors, with certain identities or orientations, as if it were a problem for “others”. The virus, however, strikes where there is a lack of information and where the belief that “it can’t happen to me” prevails. And it is in this space that it insinuates itself: in the absence of awareness, in silence.
Stigma doesn’t just affect the person who receives the diagnosis, pushing them to hide. It acts first, preventing you from taking a test, from asking for help, from getting information. It is preferred Not to know, for fear of what might emerge. And it is almost only talked about on December 1st, as if it were a calendar topic, not daily health. This silence is also a form of judgment.
Investing in prevention means guaranteeing universal access to testing, real sexual education in schools and non-moralistic information campaigns. But it also means taking a cultural step: separating illness from moral judgement. A person with HIV is a person, not a label. And today, thanks to therapies, those being treated with an undetectable viral load do not transmit the infection. A revolutionary fact that should be at the center of public communication, but instead it is still little known.
If we really want to change direction by 2030 – the goal set by the United Nations to end HIV as a health emergency – we must start from here: recognize that it is not the lack of availability of tools that slows down prevention, but the cultural barriers that keep them away from people. The virus can be fought with drugs and early diagnosis, but it can only be defeated when the stigma ceases to have a voice.
