Linguistic recommendations
Words and concepts -stigma thinking terminology
Our words have more meaning than we often think. Terms such as HIV-infected, HIV-positive, HIV-carrier and words like infection are highly charged when talking or writing about HIV. These can be perceived as derogatory and insulting by people living with HIV. Especially since the words have such a strong association with the fear that existed when HIV was discovered in the 1980s. Therefore, our organization has developed a stigma-reducing terminology in Swedish based on the UNAIDS Terminology Guidelines from 2015.
People living with HIV
People living with HIV (PLHIV) is an internationally accepted term. When talking or writing about people with a positive HIV diagnosis, it is recommended to use the term people living with HIV.
People living with HIV choose how they want to refer to themselves. Within our organization, the use of the term HIV positive is reserved for people living with HIV only. Others are advised to use the term people living with HIV (PLHIV).
Swedish spelling
In English, HIV and AIDS are abbreviations, which is why you see them written in capital letters, HIV and AIDS, in foreign texts. In Swedish, these abbreviations have become words in their own right as they can be pronounced as words (acronym). They are therefore written in lower case and words with HIV become compound words without hyphens.
Distinguish between HIV & AIDS
One of the most common mistakes is to write or speak about "HIV/AIDS". We do not believe that this terminology is appropriate as HIV and AIDS are not the same thing. In most cases, the two terms should not be used together as there is a risk of confusion. We recommend using the terms separately to avoid confusion between HIV (a virus) and AIDS (a clinical diagnosis).