Stefania Gambadoro: dead by serophobia

Dying of AIDS in 2017 after doctors' prejudices delayed her diagnosis. Stefania Gambadoro is an Italian woman who died of stigma, of serophobia. Posted in: #fediblog, #hiv, #news, #stigma

Unfortunately, yet another tragedy of hidden HIV has occurred, reported as usual through serophobia inside mainstream media: witch-hunt the disease carrier! But meanwhile, an Italian woman has died. Rest in peace, Stefania Gambadoro!

Stefania Gambadoro: who is she?

She is Stefania, an Italian civil lawyer from the province of Messina. “A respectable person” living “a normal life” — and already with these two terms we could talk about toxic narrative, but let's move forward anyway. She had a romantic relationship with Luigi—a “successful professional from Messina's high society,” as they say—a relationship from which a child was born, but shortly after, the two split, as happens all too often.

The Third Wheel

We could finish the story here, as this case's main character had a united family that supported her, allowing her to raise her little boy as best as possible, while also enjoying professional fulfillment. Instead, an unwanted third wheel stepped in.

In 2015, she began feeling ill, losing weight, and experiencing other symptoms severe enough to force her into the hospital. Anorexia, leukemia—doctors supposed anything, only to refute themselves later.

The final diagnosis, AIDS, arrived two years later. Decidedly too late to remedy the situation, and Stefania passed away in July 2017.

Dying of Serophobia

Here is the key point: we are not in 1987, but in 2017, when it has long been proven that thanks to effective treatments, sexual transmission of HIV virus can be blocked and, above all, progression to AIDS can be prevented.

Therefore, if a person dies in a country like Italy where antiviral treatments are available, the cause can certainly be drug resistance, complications, allergies to medications, or other clinical difficulties. However, unpredictable cases aside, most of the time the real problems are the false beliefs of those who do not get tested because “it only happens to others,” a lack of prevention culture, or in this case, the deep-rooted serophobia among healthcare workers who wasted precious time.

In short, it is one of many episodes linked to hidden HIV, a topic addressed by our friend Nadia Galliano in her book “Seguimi con gli occhi” – “follow me with your eyes”, an Italian book concerning unscreened HIV situations; there, a 14-year-old girl discovers the tragedy after he brother's death, who contracted HIV and subsequently AIDS because his girlfriend was unaware of her own condition.

Here, however, if possible, the situation is even sadder than the story told in Nadia's novel, because in Messina something horribly real occurred.

Like Alison Gertz

Inevitably, Stefania's death reminds us a young woman to whom we are both deeply attached, even though she passed away when we were teenagers: Alison Gertz, one of the first American HIV and AIDS activists. Heterosexual, white, coming from a wealthy family, in the early 1980s she became positive from a one-night stand, and when she was diagnosed with AIDS in 1989 until her death three years later, she fought so that young people like her would become aware of the precautions to take:

“If I can get AIDS, everyone can”, she used to say, to emphasize that the disease does not care about social class, sexual orientation, or habits. Her very status of being outside the so-called “risk categories” prevented doctors from immediately understanding what illness afflicted her, causing her unnecessary suffering.

But at that time, long-term effective medications did not exist, and this is what makes Stefania's death even more tragic: nowadays we can know everything about HIV and AIDS. How can doctors justify not having considered this hypothesis immediately? She died of stigma—that is the reality—and we feel that Alison's sacrifice served very little purpose.

Overcoming AIDS Prejudice

Fortunately, Stefania was helped by someone who did not rest and rightfully wanted to investigate till the end: her sister Silvia, who, like Alison Gertz, fought against doctors' prejudices but, above all, managed to understand where the virus came from.

The person who transmitted it was that very same Luigi, the “successful professional,” who from 1990 to 2019 slept with half the world without disclosing his condition, causing the AIDS-related death of Stefania, his first wife also died in 1991, and the infection of other women. He was sentenced to 22 years in the first instance, as is right, but what about the doctors full of prejudice? Will they answer for their actions? We hope so, and that Silvia finds the strength to fight against them until her very last breath.

Believing that “a respectable person” cannot contract HIV in the 2000s is an offense to medical profession! Since when does medicine operate on stereotypes regarding other people's sexuality?

When prejudices Kill

If in this case a stereotype allowed a disease to progress because it was not treated in time, years ago in Russia something worse happened: her name was Irina Gaidamachuk, and she killed 17 people with a hammer. In that case as well, law enforcement moved slowly because, based on the violence committed, they assumed the serial killer was a man or a group of men. Thus, Irina got away with it for a few years, undisturbed as she murdered innocent elderly women who, without male chauvinist cliches, could have been saved.

Witch-hunt the Carrier!

The same old story: when mainstream media talks about a person who has transmitted HIV to their partners, the tone is always “witch-hunt the carrier!” They just splash “monsters” on the front page without ever digging deeper into the problem, because it is enough to mourn the dead and offer a pat on the back to comfort the surviving victims (provided they never show their faces, of course!). Except for Stefania Gambadoro and a few others, people who have become HIV-positive due to sexual predators almost always remain anonymous.

Then, when the reassuring news comes out that the criminal is in prison, the chapter closes until the next story, for which the script repeats: rage, insults toward the person and toward people living with HIV in general, sentencing, prison, curtain call. And the infection always remains “someone else's problem.”

But are we really sure that the protagonists of such news stories spread HIV just for the thrill of it? On what basis do we think that without the virus, these people would be good individuals who respect their casual or long-term partners? “I got infected, and now the same fate must happen to you”—surely there have been individuals like that, but we have serious doubts that everyone is driven by such a real or presumed urge.

Victims and Perpetrators

We would all like such tragedies never to happen again, right? Then why is there never the courage to dig down to the root of the problem? It is far too easy and convenient to criminalize HIV! Is disclosing one's status to a partner a matter of respect? Absolutely, but let's be serious: with currently existing stigma, do two people flirting in a club or online immediately talk about HIV? That does not seem like a realistic scenario. Nobody looking for a casual encounter wants to hear psychodramas, right?

In the 2000s, there are endless brands of condoms and, for those who can access it, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for those who are negative. Let's stop with the nonsense that an HIV-positive person must feel responsible for everyone else's health too.

Furthermore, the vast majority of people who are HIV-positive are on effective treatment and cannot sexually transmit the infection—this is a scientific fact that allows these individuals to no longer feel obligated to talk about it.

Before a negative person decides what positive people should do in bed, it would be wise to consider that in a world as full of serophobia as this one, a casual contact could easily turn out to be a blackmailer: “Pay me or I'll disclose your status,” “Sleep with me or I'll talk,” etc.

We need to change this media narrative surrounding the virus, because stigma forces people to keep HIV a secret. If it is already difficult to come out for someone who respects themselves and others, what happens if you are a person who has never cared about others' life? Let's not fool ourselves: the world is full of selfish people who are indifferent to what happens around them; one does not need to be disturbed like the Italian case of Valentino Talluto. To have no regards and pass HIV to unsuspecting partners, a much simpler profile is sufficient:

All of these are conditions that transform stigma victim into a perpetrator. Far be it from us to defend those who behave this way; justice must punish them, as harming others is not the solution to facing serophobia. The fact remains, however, that as long as stigma is widespread, the probability of these extreme stories will always be present. The sooner we realize this, the better, because even before HIV, such individuals did not care about human life, and the virus is merely yet another tool to prove it.

We are nevertheless aware that, as reassuring as it may be to see the “monster” in prison, no one will give HIV-negativity back to the people involved against their will, nor will it bring those who died back to life.

There were similar figures during COVID as well, walking around without protection or vaccinations while shouting about “freedom,” only to scream “witch-hunt the carrier!” when discussing those who do not protect themselves during sexual relations while concealing their HIV status. They are all cut from the same cloth!

“Monsters,” HIV, and Therapy

HIV related true crime stories share another common element: no one ever talks about therapies, or the topic remains vague. All that matters is that the main character of the story is positive and spread the infection, whereas details about therapy are fundamental. We will repeat it to the point of exhaustion: an HIV-positive person taking antivirals regularly CANNOT transmit the virus, even during unprotected sex!

Speaking of the man from Messina, news outlets claimed that he “had been positive since 1990 and had been receiving treatment for years”; other sources state that “from 1990 to 2019 he transmitted the virus to five women.” To us, this story only makes sense up to a point: if the outcome was so tragic, something definitely went wrong!

Given his first wife and Stefania's deaths, we rule out that he was completely off medication, because in that case, he would have developed AIDS and died as well. The same applies if the therapy had been ineffective and he had never changed it. Instead, we believe that he was inconsistent with taking his medication, keeping his viral load far above the undetectable threshold and thus retaining the ability to transmit it.

Nobody understands the damage caused by such superficial reporting, and above all, nobody is held accountable for it: distributing news in this manner breeds confusion, leading to misinformation and ultimately stigma. They care little if Stefania's now-teenage son—who is in the care of her sister—is caught in the middle. Decadent media reporting exposes him to bullying and insults: “child of a disease spreader,” “child of plague victims,” or worse, being treated as a perpetual victim. Given his mother's unknowingly positive status, he was fortunate enough to be born without the virus; the offense induced by misinformation should not be loaded onto his shoulders as well! Have the media thought about any of this? We have serious doubts about that. They are interested in publishing the most morbid stories possible—after all, who is going to speak up? Those living with HIV always stay quiet, so no one will pay damages after instilling even stronger prejudices in public opinion. God forbid they talk about sex education; for them, it's better to keep treating HIV as a “punishment” or a misfortune brought about by a “plague spreader.” ...And the chain reaction continues. Until the next dead person to mourn or victim to pity when shown faceless and with a distorted voice on yet another TV show.

Stefania Gambadoro Died of Serophobia: Update December 2022

The appeal trial for the man's conviction was scheduled for October 25, 2022, but a procedural flaw emerged: two of the jurors turned 65, the age limit for that role. So, just so we don't miss out on any absurdity, the trial will have to start over from scratch—from the court of first instance. Beyond the doctors' serophobia, bureaucracy is also hurting Stefania Gambadoro. We truly have no words left.

Stefania Gambadoro: Update March 2023

The trial has restarted from the beginning; we do not know much, and if we are not adding more details about it at the moment, it is because all media covering it continue to fuel media-enabled stigma, and we do not want to encourage them by giving them extra visits. We are following the story and will see how it progresses, but as for the doctors who delayed the diagnosis, there has been no conviction so far.