HIV care in Cyprus is excellent, entirely free, and available to everyone regardless of residency or insurance status. Here's how you get on treatment, what it costs (nothing), where you stand legally, and who to lean on.

🏥 The Treatment Provider

If you test positive for HIV (either via a rapid test at Cy Checkpoint or a lab test), you will be linked to care at a specialist infectious disease clinic.

The Grigorios Clinic at Larnaca General Hospital is the primary national center for HIV treatment in Cyprus. Regardless of where you live on the island, this is likely where your core medical care will be managed.

What to Expect at the Clinic

  1. Confirmatory Testing: If your first positive result was a rapid test, the clinic will draw blood to confirm the diagnosis definitively.
  2. Baseline Bloods: They will check your CD4 count (immune system health), viral load, and test for other STIs and co-infections.
  3. Starting ART: Cyprus adheres to modern European clinical standards, meaning you will likely be offered Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) immediately, or very soon after diagnosis.

💶 Insurance and Cost

HIV treatment (ART) and all related clinical monitoring in Cyprus are completely free.

You do not need to be registered with the GeSY health system. The medication is provided directly by the public hospital pharmacy at zero cost to the patient. This applies to Cypriot citizens, EU residents, and non-EU nationals.

⚖️ Disclosure & the Law

U=U is the medical baseline. On treatment with an undetectable viral load, you cannot transmit HIV sexually — this is settled science, and it underpins everything below.

Cyprus does not currently have specific laws criminalising non-disclosure of HIV status before sex, provided you are not acting with malicious intent to infect someone. General public-health laws could in theory be read broadly, but in practice maintaining an undetectable viral load is your strongest medical and legal protection.

The law on HIV disclosure and criminalisation varies between countries and can change. Don't take your legal position from apps, partners, or rumour: if you're unsure where you stand, get current, confidential advice from the AIDS Solidarity Movement (ASM) or your clinic's HIV team — they track the local legal position and can tell you exactly what applies to you.

🤝 Peer Support and Social Workers

You do not have to process the diagnosis alone.

  • Medical Social Workers: The Grigorios Clinic has dedicated medical social workers on staff. They are there to help you navigate the logistics, understand the clinic process, and provide initial emotional support.
  • AIDS Solidarity Movement (ASM): The peers at ASM are the best community resource in Cyprus for newly diagnosed men. They offer dedicated support groups, one-on-one peer mentoring from other guys living with HIV, and can connect you with affirming psychologists if you are struggling to cope with the diagnosis. Contact them via asmcyprus.org.

This page explains the logistical pathway for HIV care in Cyprus. To understand what the virus actually does, how ART stops it, and the science behind U=U, read the General Guide to HIV Facts and the U=U Guide.

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