Shame over HIV infection remains great, according to a recent survey by the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care. The group's president tells us how this stigma is perpetuating the disease.
Among the presentations at July's XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna was one by the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care. IAPAC, headed by president José Zuniga, reported on its AIDS Treatment for Life International Survey (ATLIS), which queried 2,035 HIV-positive people from 12 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa and examined how much shame and discrimination they experience because of their disease as well as the relationships they have with their doctors. Zuniga discussed the survey and its surprising results.
The Advocate: Tell us about ATLIS.
José Zuniga: We identified quite a significant amount of stigma, considering the fact that we’re now well into the 29th year of the HIV epidemic. What was surprising to us was that that stigma is persistent in developed-world settings as well. If we look at the data related to [the admission of] “I feel alone and isolated because I have HIV/AIDS,” the North American data — the only country we surveyed in North America is the United States — was at 42%, which was well above what we expected in Africa, where we had 24%. In addition, there was data indicating that 22% of Americans living with HIV indicated there was no one they could count on to help take care of them, which was quite significant. The other piece we were quite surprised about was that 16% of U.S. respondents cited discrimination due to their sexual orientation.
How was the survey conducted?
From January to March of
this year we utilized a variety of media, including Internet and face-to-face interviews. [The methodology] depended on how we could get a nice
variety of patients and ensure we reached certain demographics in each
country.
So, it sounds like the results were a shock.
Absolutely. Given the fact that a great deal of work has been done around HIV awareness and attempts to address the determinants of stigma through a variety of means, that it persists still was quite troubling.
Something surprising was that a certain percentage of respondents in long-term relationships had not
disclosed their HIV status to their spouse or partner. That
certainly speaks to the need to advise people living with
HIV/AIDS to, by all means, inform their spouses or partners about their
serostatus so appropriate prevention methods can be utilized.
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