Prejudice is killing HIV sufferers in Cyprus

Ever since scientists identified HIV - fear, denial and stigma have accompanied the AIDS epidemic. In many countries around the world the disease is closely associated with discrimination -- individuals affected by HIV have been rejected by their families, their friends and their communities. In Cyprus the official number of HIV positive persons is around 500, but AIDS support groups estimate the figure is four times higher - a significant figure for an island of less than one million people where everybody knows each other. Cypriot society believes AIDS is not a problem, but prejudice is killing HIV sufferers. Deutsche Welle reporter Barbara Gruber traveled to the Mediterranean island to investigate.

From talking to people on the streets here in Cyprus, AIDS doesn't seem to be much of an issue. But 37-year-old Nicos tells a different story.

"It's like you live in prison, I've been living with HIV for 10 years now - things have not changed, people try to put down my IQ, it's a country where people still are scared of touching someone with HIV, they think they're going to contract HIV by just touching someone and it's so sad, bc I know how things can be different."

Nicos, who doesn't want to give his real name, spends most of his time locked up in his tiny apartment in Nicosia taking his mind off his situation by listening to music and painting. This small man with an outgoing personality would love to get out more, maybe join a gym, but doesn't have enough money. Although he got a BA and MBA in England, he can't find steady work. The 400 Euros he gets from the government barely cover his rent and his basic needs. But he says he doesn't want to judge or criticize people -- he just wants his dignity.

"People don't know the difference between HIV and AIDS.You know how hard a time I had when I was making my application for the house at the government offices. I've been telling them I'm HIV and they were asking me what is this? I couldn't tell them AIDS because AIDS means gay, means bad person, filthy person, means punishment by god, it's all those things in Cyprus... that's why I lock myself in my house, I try to do things for myself, I run marathons, I do things to try to get the stress out of me."

Sometimes, the barriers within people can cause much more harm than the baries among them

Five years ago, there were no places for people who are HIV positive or suffering from AIDS to turn for help.

"We are a conservative society in Cyprus. Imagine if they stigmatize a homosexual, how they behave with a person who has HIV?"

That's Stella Michaelides, chairwoman of the AIDS support group, KYFA. She opened the first support center with money she raised herself. People can come here for a chat, to have coffee - or speak to a psychologist. Like George who was infected with HIV more than 10 years ago. He comes here almost every day, he tells me with a broad smile.

"Kyfa has supported me a lot of times - financially, mentally and psychologically. Loneliness is the main problem I'm facing - everyday. The most important thing to me is that people accept us and don't treat us as if we're aliens."

Despite the loneliness, people with HIV/AIDS are often too afraid to meet each other says volunteer Stella Michaelides

"I tried to get them together last year and I asked through the newspaper to come to Chef. ... They don't want to know each other because they are talking. Because it's a close community they are afraid. It's very very difficult. To have a job, to have a friend, to have everything."

For Nicos, the risk that his secret might get out is simply too great.

"If that person tells their friends and their friends and their friends -then this might get out of hand, and you don't want it. You can not have a life if 2 or 3 people know it. Because those 3 people will become 200 at the end of the year."

Some are even afraid of registering to get the free medicine they are entitled to in Cyprus, says AIDS activist Stella Michaelides. Those who can afford it often go abroad for treatment and medicine. The fear of stigma and discrimination is huge - especially at the only AIDS clinic in Cyprus, confirms Nicos.

Drug abuse counts among the risk factors of HIV transmission

"That clinic is a mixed clinic, there are people with other illnesses and they think by doing this they are going to protect the names of the people... Sometimes I go there and see people I know, Cyprus is a very very small place. I couldn't get my pills for two months lately because there was an aunt of mine with a heart problem that was actually in the clinic - I couldn't go there."

People are afraid of losing their jobs, their apartments, and their friends. Society is so small and conservative in Cyprus, it's very difficult to find work once rumors are going around that someone has HIV.

"Of course there are examples that they are fired from their jobs. We had an incident this year a woman who was fired from her job twice, because they found out that she was HIV positive, of course they didn't give the excuse that she is HIV and they found it out. They found another excuse."

The energetic president of KYFA is one of the few people to openly speak about AIDS in Cyprus. She says there is still a long way to go: people with HIV and AIDS need to get paid a monthly benefits that allow them to live a dignified life. New medications have to be made available. And HIV test results should be back in five days and not five months, says Stella Michaelides. But one of the most important things in her eyes is getting a proper hospice for people suffering from HIV/AIDS. For ten years now she has been trying to make that happen.

"This year we have an improvement; they gave us a piece of land to build a hospice, we're fighting to make this hospice, of course we will need half a million pounds to do that... this is very big step for the government to give us this piece of land to build this hospice."

At the same time, she warns that the virus is on the rise. Increased drug abuse and ever less precautions are all contributing to spread the virus - while prejudice and discrimination are killing HIV sufferers. For Nicos it's not so much the disease anymore that is making his life unbearable, it's the rejection he experiences everyday.

"We don't belong anywhere. We are not even special needs people. I have to take 10-12 pills a day it's not the disease that will kill me one day, it's the side effects of the disease and I know. Death doesn't scare me, it's the quality of today, it's my dignity that counts."