Stigma in health facilities undermines diagnosis, treatment, and successful health outcomes. Addressing stigma is fundamental to delivering quality healthcare and achieving optimal health. This correspondence article seeks to assess how developments over the past 5 years have contributed to the state of programmatic knowledge—both approaches and methods—regarding interventions to reduce stigma in health facilities, and explores the potential to concurrently address multiple health condition stigmas. It is supported by findings from a systematic review of published articles indexed in PubMed, Psychinfo and Web of Science, and in the United States Agency for International Development’s Development Experience Clearinghouse, which was conducted in February 2018 and restricted to the past 5 years. Forty-two studies met inclusion criteria and provided insight on interventions to reduce HIV, mental illness, or substance abuse stigma. Multiple common approaches to address stigma in health facilities emerged, which were implemented in a variety of ways. The literature search identified key gaps including a dearth of stigma reduction interventions in health facilities that focus on tuberculosis, diabetes, leprosy, or cancer; target multiple cadres of staff or multiple ecological levels; leverage interactive technology; or address stigma experienced by health workers. Preliminary results from ongoing innovative responses to these gaps are also described. The current evidence base of stigma reduction in health facilities provides a solid foundation to develop and implement interventions. However, gaps exist and merit further work. Future investment in health facility stigma reduction should prioritize the involvement of clients living with the stigmatized condition or behavior and health workers living with stigmatized conditions and should address both individual and structural level stigma.

The purpose of this review paper is to provide information and guidance to those in the health care setting about why it is important to combat HIV‐related stigma and how to successfully address its causes and consequences within health facilities. Research shows that stigma and discrimination in the health care setting and elsewhere contributes to keeping people, including health workers, from accessing HIV prevention, care and treatment services and adopting key preventive behaviours.Studies from different parts of the world reveal that there are three main immediately actionable causes of HIV‐related stigma in health facilities: lack of awareness among health workers of what stigma looks like and why it is damaging; fear of casual contact stemming from incomplete knowledge about HIV transmission; and the association of HIV with improper or immoral behaviour.To combat stigma in health facilities, interventions must focus on the individual, environmental and policy levels. The paper argues that reducing stigma by working at all three levels is feasible and will likely result in long‐lasting benefits for both health workers and HIV‐positive patients. The existence of tested stigma‐reduction tools and approaches has moved the field forward. What is needed now is the political will and resources to support and scale up stigma‐reduction activities throughout health care settings globally.

The growing recognition of the reduction of HIV stigma as central to effective programs across the HIV/AIDS prevention to care and treatment continuum is leading to an increasing number of programs focused on stigma reduction. Correctly evaluating the impact of these programs depends on having a good set of measures that effectively capture and distinguish the complexities of HIV stigma. This paper reviews the existing literature on HIV stigma measurement and identifies key gaps that remain. There is a need for measures at the general population level that are unambiguous about the cause of the stigmatizing behavior, that capture enacted stigma (discrimination), and that can distinguish compound (layered) stigma. In addition, studies are needed in a wider variety of contexts and on a larger scale that include a comprehensive set of measures to capture the complexity of HIV-related stigma and ensure appropriate evaluation of stigma-reduction programs.