PFC recommended HIV terminology v2 07/02/2022
People First Charter: recommended terminology for research and publications related to HIV
Please avoid
AIDS patient
AIDS test
AIDS virus
Catch HIV
CompliantContagious/infectious
Dirty or clean in the context ofpeople or injecting equipment
HIV-infected person, people,individual(s), populations
Prostitute, prostitution
Consider avoiding
Abbreviations
Co-infected person or people

Detectable or viraemic patients
Disclose HIV status
Ending HIV, ending AIDS
HIV exposed infant
HIV exposed uninfected infantIntravenous drug user/IVDU;
drug addict; drug abuser
Spread, infect
HIV deaths
Mother to child transmission
People failing therapy; failingpatients
Risk group or transmission risk
Poorly adherent
Resistant patients
Serodiscordant
Trial subjects
Unprotected sex
Zero infections

Alternatives
Person with complications of advanced HIV, person with an
AIDS-defining illness
HIV test
HIV
Acquire HIV
Taking medication as recommended, adherent, concordant
Person with transmittable HIV or detectable viral load
Just don’t use! Shared needles, injecting equipment or drug
paraphernalia acceptable
Person/people living with HIV
HIV-positive individual(s) or populations
Sex worker, transactional sex
Alternatives
Avoid abbreviating e.g. people who inject drugs (PWID),
women living with HIV (WLWH) if possible
Person living with HIV and <additional condition> e.g. person
living with HIV and hepatitis B. Treating ‘HIV/hepatitis coinfection’ or living with HIV/HBV is acceptable, treating the‘HIV/hepatitis co-infected’ is notPeople with a detectable HIV-RNA or viral load, or people withviraemia
Share or discuss HIV status
Ending HIV transmission, ending late HIV presentation orpreventable HIV-related deaths
Infant exposed to HIV
HIV-negative infant exposed to HIV
People who inject drugs; People who use drugs
Transmit, pass on
HIV-related mortality or HIV-related deaths
Vertical transmission, perinatally acquired HIV
People experiencing treatment failure, people on failingtherapy
Mode of HIV acquisition or acquisition risk
Person/people with poor adherence
People with resistant virus
Serodifferent, partners with differing HIV status
Trial participants, volunteers
Sex without a condom, condomless sex
Zero transmissions, zero new cases of HIV/newly acquired HIV

People living with HIV are not just hosts for a virus, vectors of infection, or trial subjects - they haveawareness and agency. People living with HIV have been prominent in advocating for better medicalcare, treatment expansion and have been collaborators in the medical progress made. The language
used to refer to people with HIV in research and publications, should reflect this.

Author: Laura Waters
Reviewers: Yvonne Gilleece, Caroline Sabin, Jo Josh & Matthew Hodson

PFC recommended HIV terminology v2 07/02/2022
We recognise that language is not universal, and that there are always challenges when translatingwords, including medical terminology. However, we believe that there are some terms that should
no longer be used and others that we should consider moving away from.
There is terminology that is may or may not be acceptable depending on the context in which it isused. Infection, infected and failures are terms that should not be used in the context of people,
person or populations but may be acceptable in other contexts:••••

HIV infections or HIV/hepatitis co-infections e.g. in terms of epidemiology
Acute infection and chronic infection e.g. in terms of HIV stage
HIV-infected cells e.g. in terms of in vitro research
Treatment failure e.g. in the context of epidemiology

Similarly, whilst people are encouraged to avoid abbreviations where possible, it may be necessary
to do so for readability or word counts in tables, graphs and abstracts.
This document is intentionally brief and designed as a first stop for people and organisations seeking
to use People First language. More information about appropriate language is available from otherorganisations, including UNAIDS [1], NHIVNA [2], The Salamander Trust [3] and The George House
Trust [4]. Additional resources will be added regularly.
There is ongoing debate about the appropriateness of ‘patients’ as opposed to ‘clients’ or ‘serviceusers’. We advise that all are acceptable currently but, ideally, people accessing services should beasked about their preferred terminology. UK research in mental health services show that people
prefer ‘patient’ when consulted by a psychiatrist or nurse, and ‘patient’ or ‘client’ when consulted bysocial workers and occupational therapists; ‘service user’ was not preferred [5].

References
1)

2)
3)
4)
5)

UNAIDS Terminology Guidance 2015; accessed athttps://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/2015_terminology_guidelines_en.pdf 18th October
2021
Watson S et al. The language of HIV: a guide for nurses. HIV Nursing 2019; 19(2): BP1–BP4.
Salamander Trust. The Power of Language. Accessed at https://salamandertrust.net/project/the-power-oflanguage/ 18th October 2021
The George House Trust. HIV language guide. Accessed at https://ght.org.uk/hiv-language-guide 4th February2022
Simmons P et al. Service user, patient, client, user or survivor: Describing recipients of mental health services.
The Psychiatrist 2010; 34(1): 20-23.

Author: Laura Waters
Reviewers: Yvonne Gilleece, Caroline Sabin, Jo Josh & Matthew Hodson