Do We Know Enough About HIV and Work in 2025?

HIV continues to carry harmful workplace stigma, with persistent misconceptions about how the condition impacts professional life. Despite medical advances, many misunderstandings remain about HIV and work.

At Careers with Disabilities, we believe in spreading awareness and education. We think that shedding light on such issues can help increase the levels of inclusivity, accessibility, and diversity at work. A lot of discrimination and bias are born out of ignorance and lack of awareness, so we want to spread as much information as we can through our site. 

In this blog, we are going to talk about HIV and work. In particular, we are going to talk about the reality of living and working as someone with HIV in 2025. We will dispel myths and debunk any misunderstandings that may currently circulate. 

Let’s start by quickly defining what we mean by HIV and HIV-positive. 

What is HIV?

HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It is a virus that attacks the immune system. The virus can lead to AIDS, which stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and refers to a situation in which life-threatening and severe illnesses and complications arise due to the HIV virus significantly weakening a person’s immune system.

There is no cure for HIV or AIDS, however, now there are more treatment and prevention options available than ever before. Medications, including post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), are the two main options for this. These medications can prevent the virus from entering your system and from turning into AIDS. There are also treatments that can reduce your HIV load to “undetectable”, which means it cannot be transmitted to anyone else. 

Without these treatments or medications, the virus can be spread via sex, sharing needles, during pregnancy and blood transfusions. It is recommended that people who are in a risk category for HIV regularly get screened for the virus, use sexual protection, and avoid sharing any needles or medical equipment. 

How Can HIV Impact Work?

Before treatments and medications were made available, HIV and AIDS were basically known as death sentences. The AIDS epidemic was a very painful period of human history in which many lives were lost. As such, many people still associate the terms with severe illness and death. 

However, for most people now living with the virus and access to medical care, it shouldn’t impact your life too much at all. In fact, you might never need to mention it to your employer or anyone you work with because it might never be something that crops up as an issue during your time in employment. For most people living with HIV-positive status, their viral load is under control and their life can proceed as normal. 

You are under no legal obligation to disclose your status to an employer and it might not be necessary either. You may wish to discuss it with them at some point as it can help with things such as scheduling doctor and clinic appointments, taking medication at work, and explaining any absences from work. However, you should only disclose what you are comfortable with.

The bottom line is that HIV and work aren’t overly linked at all, as HIV is now such a livable condition. 

Misconceptions about HIV

A problem that some people with HIV can experience at work is misconceptions and stereotypes from other people. These occurrences can make people with HIV feel uncomfortable and distressed. They can also cross a bridge of discrimination if the colleague is aware of their status.

It is important that we all know that certain misconceptions about HIV and AIDS are false and that we dispel them if we hear them said around us. 

Some false information can include thoughts such as: 

• HIV can be spread through saliva, sweat, and urine
• It can be spread through the use of shared cutlery in an office
• You can’t hug or kiss someone who has it
• Having HIV means you definitely will get AIDS
• It means you have a short life expectancy
• Being HIV-positive means you have had lots of promiscuous sex
• You have to wear PPE around someone who has it
• It is untreatable
• Having the condition means you are unclean
• You can’t share a desk with someone who has it
• People with HIV should only work at home 

All of these things are unhelpful and untrue. People with HIV should be treated the exact same as everyone around them. The only people who need to be informed that you have HIV are sexual partners and medical providers. For everyone else, it is not a concern as it is not relevant. 

To Conclude: HIV and Work in 2025

Everyone deserves a safe working environment, one in which they can be accepted for who they are treated with both dignity and respect. 

If you are looking for such an employment opportunity, you can find it at Careers with Disabilities. We have an inclusive job board where disabled job seekers can find diverse and accessible opportunities across the UK.

We also have plenty of resources, pieces of advice, and support tools for people with all sorts of disabilities and health conditions on our site. Check them out and don’t hesitate to get in touch if you think there is some new material we could add to our site to help disabled and diverse job seekers. 

Everyone should be included at work.