Journal of the International AIDS Society Blog

The epidemic 30 years on: AIDS and stigma

When HIV first began to spread in the 1980s, its early association with the gay community strongly induced stigma and discrimination. After 30 years, stigma remains a major obstacle to efficient HIV testing, treatment, prevention and care efforts. Erving Goffman defined stigma as “the process by which the reaction of others spoils normal identity” ^[1].

People living with HIV/AIDS have been stigmatised and discriminated against since the epidemic began. In South Africa, examples of such cases include Nkosi Johnson who was refused admission to school and Gugu Dlamini who was murdered by a mob after publicly revealing her HIV positive status. The stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS is such that, in South Africa’s Western Cape Province, HIV/AIDS is just called ‘ulwazi’ which means ‘that thing’. This has been taken to suggest that HIV/AIDS is seen as a disease which is so stigmatised, it cannot even be referred to by name ^[2] .

In high income and western countries, newly published research documenting how people living with HIV in the United Kingdom have experienced stigma and discrimination makes it is clear that the problem is still widespread. In a UK-based study, 21% (185 of the 867 participants in the research) of people living with HIV had been verbally harassed, whereas 12% had been physically assaulted because of their HIV status in the previous 12 months ^[3].

In South Asia, a study of health care providers in Bangladesh conducted from March 2005 to May 2007 showed that 80% of the nurses and 90% of the physicians’ behaviour with HIV-positive patients were discriminatory ^[4]. A recent study in China showed that a quarter of students in Beijing would be unwilling to take a class with someone who was HIV positive, though they were all aware of the fact that it was impossible to contract HIV from simply being in the presence of someone who had the virus. Because HIV-positive people often experience discrimination, studies show that stigma can create feelings of isolation and shame, as well as feelings of inferiority in relation to self and others in people who are HIV positive ^[5].

For initiatives and programmes to dispel stigma, see:

HIV/AIDS ANTI-STIGMA INITIATIVE: http://www.hivaidsstigma.org/   

Fight AIDS - Not People With AIDS! http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/aids.html

AVERT - AVERTing HIV and AIDS International HIV and AIDS charity HIV & AIDS stigma and discrimination http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-stigma.htm

In the news:   Reuters Special Report: An End to AIDS?

References:

1. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigma

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_stigma

2. HIV/AIDS STIGMA: THE LATEST DIRTY SECRET Jo Stein CSSR Working Paper No. 46 October 2003

http://www.heart-intl.net/HEART/010105/HIVAIDSStigmaTh.pdf 

3. IPPF International Planned Parenthood Federation HIV stigma and discrimination remain a significant challenge in the UK London 30 November 2009 

 http://www.ippf.org/en/News/Press-releases/HIV+stigma+and+discrimination+remain+a+significant+challenge+in+the+UK.htm

4. HIV/AIDS-Related Stigma and Discrimination: A Study of Health Care Providers in Bangladesh: A.K.M. Ahsan Ullah.

http://jia.sagepub.com/content/10/2/97.short?rss=1&ssource=mfr

5. YAHAnet Youth, the Arts, HIV & AIDS Network

http://www.yahanet.org/guides/facts/stigma 

 

Posted by Mirjam Eckert at 13:24    Comments (0)