Launched in 2023 in honor of the late South African AIDS activist Prudence Nobantu Mabele, the annual Zero HIV Stigma Day has become a global movement intended to educate communities about HIV and erase HIV stigma.
The 2025 campaign theme, HIV Stigma Warriors, calls on everyone to commit to collaborative efforts to challenge stereotypes and promote an environment of dignity for people living with and affected by HIV. Stigma – defined as the devaluation, discrimination, or exclusion of individuals or groups based on perceived difference or moral failing – is not only a social issue but can also create healthcare issues.
It continues to undermine public health goals, particularly when it intersects with other forms of systemic injustice such as racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and ableism. This intersectional stigma is experienced most acutely by individuals at the margins – Black and Brown LGBTQ+ individuals, transgender individuals, sex workers, migrants, and others for whom societal rejection is not a just possibility but a part of everyday life.
The global fight to end HIV as a public health threat by 2030 remains one of the most ambitious and noble undertakings in modern public health history. Only by fighting against Stigma and educating communities about treatment and prevention can that goal be achieved.
