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From Stigma to Strength: The Unstoppable Journey of Yana Panfilova

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Created in partnership with and funded by ViiV Healthcare. 

Yana Panfilova was 10 years old when her mother told her she had been born with HIV. At the time, what little she knew about the virus came from one very famous death.

“I didn’t know anything about HIV, only that Freddie Mercury died of AIDS,” recalls Panfilova, who grew up in Kyiv, Ukraine. “My initial question was: when would I die?” 

‘Don’t tell anybody’: facing stigma 

Panfilova’s mother, who was working with teenagers living with HIV, reassured her daughter that with the right medication, she could live a long life. 

But her grandmother, who had grown up in the Soviet Union and whose views had been shaped by decades of misinformation, had a very different message: “Don’t tell anybody because everybody will hate you”. 

It was one of Panfilova’s first experiences with HIV stigma. It wouldn’t be her last. 

Panfilova saw a classmate living with HIV face beatings and calls for her expulsion. When Panfilova confided in her best friend that she had the virus, the girl broke down in tears, afraid she had acquired HIV just from sharing a plate. 

Recalling her friend’s reaction: “She was so angry and upset. She was biased because in our........

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