Terminology guidelines

Source:  UN Secretariat

 

One of the most common misuses of language relates to “HIV/AIDS or HIV and AIDS”. This terminology is no longer considered appropriate and in most cases the two terms should not be used together.   UNAIDS documents should either use  ' HIV ' or use  ' AIDS ', when most appropriate.  The following examples which are included in the revised Editor’s notes should provide more guidance and are reproduced below for easy reference .

 

Old usage	Current preferred usage
HIV/AIDS	HIV unless specifically referring to AIDS
HIV/AIDS	AIDS diagnosis; HIV-related disease
HIV/AIDS epidemic	AIDS epidemic or HIV epidemic
HIV/AIDS prevalence	HIV prevalence
HIV/AIDS prevention	HIV prevention
HIV/AIDS testing	HIV testing
People living with HIV/AIDS	People living with HIV