National AIDS Trust

About National AIDS Trust

We're the UK's HIV rights charity. We work to stop HIV from standing in the way of health, dignity and equality, and to end new HIV transmissions. Our expertise, research and advocacy secure the leadership, resources and focus to make sustainable change for everyone living with or at risk of HIV.

For example, we are the reason:

• PrEP, the HIV prevention medication, is available for free on the NHS.
• Pre-employment health questionnaires are illegal – so employers can’t decide whether to offer a job based on HIV status.
• HIV is recognised as a disability, leading to a host of legal protections.
• Welfare benefit assessments can take into account fluctuating conditions such as HIV.
• The NHS and Home Office no longer share data for immigration tracing purposes.
• More new mothers can access free formula milk to avoid HIV transmission, including in Manchester and other areas.
• There is an end to the discriminatory lifetime ban and subsequent restrictions on gay and bisexual men donating blood.
• Individual income protection policies are available for people living with HIV and rules that perpetuate HIV stigma in insurance services have been removed.

Forty years have passed since the first deaths from AIDS-related illnesses and much has changed. Effective prevention and treatment are now freely available, so we don’t live under the same cloud of fear. We can even see a possible end to new cases in the UK by 2030. But the battle is far from over. People living with HIV continue to be viewed negatively and discrimination remains rife. Our community are more likely to live in poverty, be unemployed, be lonely and experience mental ill health.

Forty years on, we still fight daily for equality. Equality in the workplace, in education, in access to products and services, in care homes, and even in healthcare. We tackle this head-on, going straight to the heart of the issues, changing policies, practices, laws and public opinion. We also run a free UK-wide discrimination advice and support service.

We’re the UK’s main supplier of the iconic HIV awareness red ribbon, and power the World AIDS Day website, running high profile campaigns every year to raise awareness of HIV on and around World AIDS Day on 1 December.