AN EXHIBITION showing images of people living with HIV aims to reduce stigma around the virus.

The collection of 25 portraits, coinciding with World AIDS Day, is on display at the Jubilee Library in Jubilee Street, Brighton, as well as on digital screens in other libraries across Brighton and Hove.

Titled U=U (Undetectable = untransmissable), the exhibition shows a variety of different people with HIV living their life to their full potential and that there is more to them than their diagnosis.

Glenn Stevens, the founder of the 'More to me than HIV' project, features among the portraits in the exhibition.

He said the project aims to show people that living with the virus is very different than it was several decades ago, as well as normalise getting tested for HIV.

The Argus: Glenn StevensGlenn Stevens

Glenn said: "When I was talking to people about World AIDS Day, some people were thinking back to the 1980s and the government's 'Don't Die of Ignorance' campaign. They reflect on a time when HIV was scary.

"We want to bring HIV awareness up to date; there have been huge advances in medication so people lead normal lives.

"The exhibition displays a wide variety of people, like gardeners, or cooks, or like myself, a librarian, to say 'this what people with HIV look like today'."

A vigil to remember those who have lost their lives to the epidemic will take place beside the Brighton and Hove AIDS Memorial in New Steine Gardens at 6pm this evening.

Staff and volunteers for the Brighton-based charity The Sussex Beacon will also be fundraising outside of Brighton Station this morning between 7am to 11am. The charity supports people living with HIV, with the team also offering commuters red ribbons to wear to help increase HIV awareness within the community.

Brighton became the first city in the UK to join the UN's fast-track cities initiative in 2017, which aims to reach the goal of having zero new HIV infections and no AIDS-related deaths.

The city has been leading the way in HIV services, while the UK has worked towards becoming the first country to end new cases of the virus by 2030.

First marked in 1988, World AIDS Day is marked every December 1 to show support for people living with HIV and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness.

Globally, there are an estimated 38 million people who have the virus, with over 105,000 living with HIV in the UK.

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