The study looked at 478 HIV positive people in France; all had been diagnosed while employed and in the era of anti-retroviral treatments, which slows progression to AIDS.

At the time of the interview, participants had known about their diagnosis for an average of four years, and about four out of 10 had progressed to AIDS or severe immune deficiency.

The study, published in the ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, found

149 had lost their jobs while still of working age and one in three said their health had precipitated their job loss.

But one in five said they had been fired, and some 12 percent had not had their contracts renewed.

Women with AIDS or severe immune deficiency were more than four times as likely to lose their job as those with less severe illness, but the same was not true of men.

Those with lower levels of education who said they had been discriminated against at work were more than five times as likely to find themselves out of a job as those who had not experienced discrimination.