Before I watched the video, I read the description of what it was about. A campaign where a drop of HIV positive blood was put on posters and they were hung in public. My immediate thought? Could that be dangerous?

By the end of the video I learned the answer: no. And neither are people living with HIV. There is a huge stigma associated with HIV/AIDS that keeps people--like myself--from truly understanding the disease.

But when people are faced with this disease when they see the ad (literally HIV is right in front of them) they are forced to face whatever discomforts they might feel in order to get to the truth, which is, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Not of the poster and not from people that are HIV positive.

"The poster is completely harmless. The blood has already dried. The HIV can't survive long outside the human body. Because of the treatment, the blood of the volunteers can't infect anyone. Besides ... HIV is not transmitted by poster." — Dr. Artur Kalichman

The volunteers that donated their blood to this project got to watch people’s reactions as they read the poster, and it was awesome. The transformation from fear to understanding is evident on the people’s faces and it’s really a beautiful sight to watch the stigma be broken.

So take approximately 3 minutes and 39 seconds to watch video. Because even if you don’t think you have any subconscious bias towards HIV, these posters something to be positive about.

TopicsHIV/AidsHealthVideoWorld

Editorial

Defeat Poverty

Less than 4 minutes and a poster can change how you see HIV

By Alex Vinci