Gareth Thomas, a former Welsh rugby star and HIV advocate, participated in the International AIDS Conference in Rio de Janeiro as part of the Tackle HIV campaign. There, he met Welton Gabriel, a 36-year-old Brazilian event organizer who has been living with HIV for twelve years. Gabriel faced significant health challenges initially but now advocates against stigma through Barong, an organization supporting vulnerable communities. Brazil has nearly 1.1 million people living with HIV, the highest in Latin America, and over half of those individuals have experienced discrimination despite having access to free treatment through public healthcare.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-13,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
'People are still afraid of those three letters': Fighting the stigma of HIV
RIO DE JANEIRO --
asserted
People → fight → HIV
"People are still afraid of those three letters," says Gareth Thomas, a former Welsh rugby star.
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Thomas → say → letters
He's talking about HIV.
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He → talk → HIV
Thomas became a global champion for people living with HIV when he announced that he was HIV positive in 2019.
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he → become → 2019
Since then, he has been a strong advocate for sharing knowledge about the virus –- and what it's like to live with it.
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it → share → it
This summer, he came to Rio de Janeiro to participate in the International AIDS Conference and to spread his message as part of the Tackle HIV campaign.
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he → come → campaign
"I thought I was gonna die"
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I → think → ?
That message resonates with another advocate: Welton Gabriel, a 36-year-old event organizer from Sao Paolo.
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message → resonate → Paolo
Sitting in a bar overlooking the world-famous Ipanema beach, Welton Gabriel recalled the night 12 years earlier when he learned he had tested positive for HIV.
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he → sit → HIV
"I thought I was gonna die," he remembers.
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he → think → ?
For a while, his life did hang in the balance.
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life → hang → balance
Gabriel had contracted a treatment-resistant strain of HIV — he believes that the sexual partner who infected him had been taking medication but decided to stop, allowing the virus to mutate.
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virus → contract → medication
It took seven months before doctors were able to get the infection under control.
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doctors → take → control
"The amount of virus in my body was really high," he says.
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he → say → body
"I was initially started on a medicine that gave me a lot of problems with my liver, and my eyes became yellow.
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eyes → start → liver
But then I was changed to the treatment that I am still on, which is working."
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which → change → that
Despite the trauma he'd endured, and the fact that his condition was under control, when Gabriel chose to tell close friends that he was HIV positive, many cut contact.
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many → endure → contact
"They did not want to talk with me," recalls Gabriel, who lives in São Paulo.
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who → want → Paulo
Such discrimination remains one of the biggest hurdles to ending AIDS as a public-health threat in Brazil, a country of about 214 million which has the greatest number of people living with HIV in Latin America — nearly 1.1 million.
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which → remain → America
While Brazil's public healthcare system provides free access to medications that can suppress HIV and prevent transmission, allowing people to live normally, many still face a lifetime of stigma.
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many → provide → stigma
Research from UNAIDS Brazil, a nonprofit that works closely with government agencies in the country, suggests that more than half of all HIV positive individuals in the country have experienced some form of discrimination.
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half → work → discrimination
Gabriel lost friends, and others have been excluded by their own family or denied opportunities at work after disclosing their HIV status.
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others → lose → status
Today, Gabriel works as an activist with Barong, an organization that supports vulnerable communities across Brazil by offering mobile testing, education and information about HIV protection.
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that → work → protection
He has come to realize that much of the discrimination stems from a place of fear.
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much → come → fear
Despite advances in HIV science — highlighted at this summer's AIDS 2026 conference in Rio, where researchers discussed developments from a monthly pill that can block HIV transmission to new strategies aimed at long-term remission — Gabriel says perceptions of HIV in Brazil have changed little since 1990, when the iconic Brazilian singer Cazuza died of AIDS at age 32.
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singer → highlight → age
Charismatic and talented, Cazuza went from school dropout to wealthy superstar during the 1980s and captivated the Brazilian public.
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Cazuza → go → public
His struggle with the debilitating effects of AIDS turned HIV into a household discussion topic within the country.
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struggle → debilitate → country
However, Gabriel says that many people are unaware of the extent to which medical science has changed the prognosis of HIV over the past three and a half decades.
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science → say → decades
As a result, he says that HIV is still commonly viewed as a death sentence.
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HIV → say → sentence
"For a lot of Brazilians of that generation, that's still the symbol of HIV," says Gabriel.
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Gabriel → say → HIV
"When I learned I was HIV positive, I looked on Google, and the first thing I saw was the story of Cazuza.
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I → learn → Cazuza
'You can live a normal, happy, healthy life"
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You → live → life
Gabriel had come to Ipanema Beach to speak with teenagers from disadvantaged communities as part of a Tackle HIV event organized in partnership with Thomas, Viiv Healthcare and AIDS-related charities.
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Gabriel → come → Thomas
The effort aims to shift public attitudes by bringing accurate information to young people who are often left out of mainstream health outreach.
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who → aim → outreach
Speaking at the event, Thomas suggested that people still ostracize those living with HIV because of a lack of knowledge about the virus.
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people → speak → virus
He says it's common for people to be unaware of the modern medications that can prevent and control HIV.
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that → say → HIV
""Many people don't know that you can live a normal, happy, healthy life if you start medication straight away, and so people avoid getting tested, avoid the result or avoid the medicine taking," says Thomas.
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Thomas → know → taking
In Brazil, national health data shows that 27% of HIV positive people are only diagnosed and treated once their condition has progressed to a late stage, known as advanced AIDS.
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condition → show → AIDS
By that point, their immune system is severely weakened, leaving them highly vulnerable to life-threatening infections.
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system → weaken → infections
In 2024, the most recent year for which data is available, more than 9,000 people in Brazil died from AIDS.
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people → die → AIDS
…and 39 more, not listed.
