Knowledge about STDs, HIV/AIDS and family planning is directly
affected by exposure to adequate information. Misinformation,
erroneous concepts and negative perspectives are important in the
development of fears, rumors and taboos regarding STDs and HIV/AIDS.
The influence of previous experience, gender and religion was also
identified.
Stigmas and negative attitudes towards people with HIV/AIDS
inhibit awareness of one's own risk.
The project resulted in the implementation of strategies for the
strengthening and development of interventions in the area of IECC.
"
"Only 16% of the surgical residents knew that there was a vaccine
for hepatitis A. Though 84% knew that there was no vaccine for
hepatitis C, the majority (56%) were unaware that Hepatitis C Virus was a sexually
transmitted disease and 82% did not know about the possibility of it
being transmitted perinatally. Of all the subjects, 93% knew that
Hepatitis C Virus could be transmitted through blood transfusion and 88% knew
about its transmission through a needle-stick injury. As well, 65%
did not know that Hepatitis C Virus is initially asymptomatic. Knowledge about the
complications of Hepatitis C Virus was adequate. Most of the residents were
unaware of the physical properties of the virus, i.e., what destroys
it, thus they incorrectly estimated the seroconversion rates with
exposure to patients. This finding correlates with another study.23
Overall, there were significant gaps in the knowledge of the
hepatitis C virus transmission.
With regards to attitudes towards Hepatitis C Virus, 42% of the respondents
said they would tell their patients about their own Hepatitis C Virus
seropositivity and 64% of residents did not believe in interferon
therapy. Of all the respondents, 40% were in a habit of reading
medical literature at least once a week."
|
A REVIEW OF SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH ON HIV/AIDS |
Around 22
million people have died from AIDS since the beginning of the
epidemic and there are approximately 36 million people infected
with HIV in the world today, of which about 70 percent live in
Sub-Saharan Africa. Rates of newly acquired HIV infection are
highest in the 15-19 age group, and the majority of infections
in this group are girls. Concerted national and international
efforts are therefore needed to prevent the spread of HIV,
mitigate the effects of the epidemic and to break the silence
that still continues to surround HIV in many countries.
|
|
|
A review of the Knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of university
students concerning HIV/AIDS |
Research
related to HIV/AIDS among university students has focused
primarily on the assessment of knowledge, attitudes and
behaviours and to a lesser extent, on the effectiveness of
educational interventions. Ensuring the greatest success
involves a multifaceted and coordinated effort which brings
together faculty, administration, students, health education
professionals and the external community of students |
125 kb pdf |
|
A Second Decade of Stigma:
Public Reactions to AIDS in the United States, 1990-91
|
Throughout
the 1980s, a second epidemic shadowed AIDS in the United States.
Many people infected with HIV were socially isolated, fired from
their jobs, driven from their homes, and even physically
attacked. 'AIDS-related stigma'. also posed threats to the physical and
psychological well-being of those simply perceived to be at
risk. Members of the gay and lesbian community, for example,
appeared increasingly to be targets of hate crimes, many of
which included references by the perpetrators to AIDS.2
In addition, AIDS-related stigma affected public support for
government policies, and governmental support for AIDS-education
programs.3 And it affected the willingness of
individuals and entire communities at risk to acknowledge AIDS
as a problem and to initiate prevention programs |
|
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A Woman Stoned
|
A woman was
stoned to death because her neighbors thought they would get
AIDS from her! Though we have heard of such cases before, we
never thought it would happen so near. |
|
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AIDS: A Jewish Perspective |
At the outset, one possible misconception must be dispelled. The
argument is sometimes made that since AIDS is spread by conduct
that both Judaism and Christianity regard as immoral, society
should not be overly concerned. Let the sinners suffer the
consequences of their sin. This is an utterly fallacious
argument |
|
|
AIDS, Stigma and the Media |
There is an
emerging global consensus among governments, international
organizations and the private sector to focus more attention and
resources on HIV/AIDS…Perhaps the most underutilized force for
scaling up is the media, especially when it comes to reaching
young people. Media can also play a critical role in breaking
the silence about HIV in countries with emerging epidemics and
reluctant leaders. |
414 kb pdf |
|
AIDS-Related Stigma and Social Interaction: Puerto Ricans Living
With HIV/AIDS
|
People living with HIV/AIDS are stigmatized. Although personal
and social consequences of this stigmatization have been
documented, research regarding its impact on social interactions
is scarce. Latinos, and Puerto Ricans in particular, have voiced
concern regarding AIDS stigma. The authors investigated the key
role of social interaction in the process of stigmatization
through in-depth, semistructured interviews in a sample of 30
Puerto Ricans living with HIV/AIDS. Participants reported
instances in which AIDS stigma negatively influenced social
interactions with family, friends, sexual partners, coworkers,
and health professionals. Some of the consequences they
described were loss of social support, persecution, isolation,
job loss, and problems accessing health services. Findings
support the need for interventions to address AIDS stigma and
its consequences. |
Pdf 121 kb |
|
An overview of HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination
|
All over the
world, the epidemics of HIV and AIDS are having a profound
impact, bringing out the best and the worst in people. They
trigger the best when individuals group together in solidarity
to combat government, community and individual denial, and to
offer support and care to people living with HIV and AIDS. They
bring out the worst when individuals are stigmatized and
ostracized by their loved ones, their family and their
communities, and discriminated against individually as well as
institutionally. |
|
|
Antecedents of Attitudes Toward the Poor
|
This study assessed attitudes toward the poor using just-world
beliefs, external/structural attributions for poverty, and
internal/individualistic attributions for wealth as predictors.
Just-world beliefs are the extent to which people believe the
world is a just or unjust place, and that people get what they
deserve. High levels of just-world beliefs frequently contribute
to schemas that are associated with victim blaming (e.g., the
rape victim must have done something to provoke it).
Attributions are indicators of the characteristics (or traits,
motives, etc.) that people ascribe to themselves or others. |
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Atlantic City-needle
exchange program |
a proposal to implement the state's first needle-exchange
program, |
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Attacks on Science" The Risks to Evidence-Based Policy
|
As government
agencies, academic centers, and researchers affiliated with them
provide an increasing share of the science base for policy
decisions, they are also subject to efforts to politicize or
silence objective scientific research |
115 kb pdf
|
|
Bias, Discrimination, and Obesity |
This article reviews information on discriminatory attitudes
and behaviors against obese individuals, integrates this
to show whether systematic discrimination occurs and
why, and discusses needed work in the field. Clear
and consistent stigmatization, and in some cases
discrimination, can be documented in three important
areas of living: employment, education, and health
care. Among the findings are that 28% of teachers in one study
said that becoming obese is the worst thing that can
happen to a person; 24% of nurses said that they are
"repulsed" by obese persons; and, controlling for
income and grades, parents provide less college
support for their overweight than for their thin
children. |
|
|
Caregivers |
HIV disease
presents profound challenges to primary caregivers including
adjusting to the care recipient's disease progression, having
increasing responsibilities for decision making as the disease
progresses, responding to unexpected improvement, having to deal
with a virtually uncontrollable disease, and managing role
conflict and fatigue. Caregivers who are themselves infected
with HIV face additional challenges. |
|
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Case Study Executive Summary
|
DCSA established its workplace and community HIV/AIDS project in
2001 to address the increasing financial burden associated with
HIV/AIDS. DCSA also decided to provide prevention, care, support
and treatment services to employees, their dependants and the
community as part of DCSA.s obligation to these stakeholders
based on the principles of corporate social responsibility
(CSR). |
|
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Changing the Stigma of and Levels of Awareness for Hepatitis and
HIV/AIDS |
"They deserve
to die!" "How did he get it?" "Tom has AIDS, he must be gay."
The terms HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis are now almost interchangeable
with lifestyles being gay or being a user of IV drugs; if you
are positive for AIDS, you must be gay; if you are positive for
Hepatitis, you must have used IV drugs. |
|
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China Discrimination Fuels HIV/AIDS Crisis |
Widespread
discrimination against
people with HIV/AIDS is fueling the spread of the epidemic in
China,
Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released today |
|
|
Christianity and Islam in Africa's Political Experience: Piety,
Passion and Power |
Relations between Islam and Christianity can be conflictual as
they currently seem to be in parts of the Nile Valley, or
competitive as they seem to be in East Africa, or ecumenical as
they have often been in countries like Tanzania. Christianity
and Islam are in conflictual relations when hostilities are
aroused, and the two great religions re-enact in Africa a shadow
of the Crusades. Christianity and Islam are in competition when
they are rivals in the free market of values and ideals,
scrambling for converts without edging towards hostility. |
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CHRONIC/SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESS |
. . . individuals who, through no fault of their own or their
families, suffer from one of several diseases affecting the
brain, the most complex of human organs. The causes remain
unknown, but are probably multiple. There is no cure, but we do
have effective treatment. In addition to having a brain disease,
people with serious mental illness are (by definition)
significantly functionally impaired by the illness for an
indefinite period of time (diagnosis, disability, duration). At
least 1% of the population are seriously mentally ill. The
problems of victims and their families are compounded by stigma,
one of the cruelest and most prevalent forms of bigotry that
exists. |
|
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|
It is
impossible to pin down chronologically the origins of the
three-way alcoholism–syphilis–tuberculosis connection. In a
paper presented at a 1891 tuberculosis conference that may
represent the first explicit reference, Dr. E. Tison included a
case study of an alcoholic and syphilitic patient who died of
tuberculosis. Tison concluded that the progress of the
tuberculosis was more rapid than normal in this case (not
sclérosant) and that “pulmonary [tuberculosis] followed organic
weakening by syphilis and alcoholism.” Somewhat indirect
references to this triangular connection can be found in
writings on tuberculosis around the turn of the century as well.
For example, Romme maintained in 1901 that the “seed” of
tuberculosis found “a particularly propitious soil” in
unsanitary lodgings, whose inhabitants were “ravaged by syphilis
and alcohol.” In most cases, references to the three-way
connection were oblique, or remained at the level of allusion.
|
|
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Considerations on the Stigma of Mental Illness |
Stigma, prejudice, and discrimination are closely related and
tightly interwoven social constructs. These constructs affect
many, based on age, religion, ethnic origin, or socio- economic status.
|
|
|
COPING MECHANISMS OF THE STIGMATIZED: METHODS OF PROTECTING
SELF-WORTH |
the paper
focuses on different theoretical models that stigmatized
individuals may use in order to cope with prejudice and
compensate for their stigma. Empirical evidence and current
research trends are reviewed with a view towards presenting not
only what research has been conducted and how it is being
interpreted, but also what questions are being raised and remain
unanswered by current social science research. |
|
|
Coping Mechanisms of the Stigmatized: Methods of Protecting
Self-Worth |
A
stigmatized person possesses and exhibits an attribute that
conveys a devalued personal and social identity within a
particular social context. Stigmatized individuals are commonly
the targets of stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination, face
social rejection, and perceive considerable threat from the
nonstigmatized or outgroup. |
83 kb pdf |
|
Coping with
Stigma |
How should
we deal with stigma and its impacts? This question would
probably seem absurd to an ancient Greek, about to brand someone
with a visible mark to signify that this person was immoral or
dangerous and thus undesirable, someone to be denigrated and
avoided. Stigmatization in ancient Greece was a form of risk
management. Even today, stigmatization can be a positive force
for risk reduction |
pdf |
|
Couples |
A couple is
composed of two persons in a committed sexual or romantic
relationship, usually over a significant period of time. Couples
may be opposite-sex or same-sex, married or unmarried,
monogamous or non-monogamous, and cohabitating or living apart
and may or may not have children. |
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COUPLES' PERCEPTIONS OF WIVES' CFS SYMPTOMS, SYMPTOM CHANGE, AND
IMPACT ON THE MARITAL RELATIONSHIP |
The purpose
of this descriptive correlational study was to describe the
differences in couples' perceptions of wives' Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome (CFS) symptoms and to describe the relationship between
changing symptoms and the marital relationship. |
|
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Cure versus care
|
The term
'Quality of Life' is often heard... and said at the Hospice to
remind us of our main aim and purpose. As most of our patients
have been diagnosed with a terminal disease, further treatment
is often inappropriate and cure is not always an option.
|
|
|
Definition of the freak |
Sadly, those of our species who are found to be outside the
borders of normality in appearance and action have been often
stared at, studied, exploited, exhibited, and most often,
feared. In the middle ages, they were seen as "prodigies", signs
of God's displeasure and/or dominion over the earth, and were
thus exploited by religious zealots. |
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DENIAL |
Because
HIV/AIDS carries so much stigma (qv) there are many pressures
for denying a seropositive status or not seeking a test.
Individuals may have a psychological aversion to hearing news of
what is considered to be virtually a death sentence and there
are more practical disadvantages such as the high chances of
being sacked or difficulties in getting insurance as well as
marital problems when serostatus is known. At governmental level
there may be denial of statistics because it is assumed that
this will frighten away investment or tourists. |
|
|
Denial, Stigma Delaying Alzheimer's
Diagnoses |
Most diagnoses of Alzheimer's disease are delayed until more
than two years after the first symptoms appeared, according to a
survey released Tuesday. Ignorance, denial and stigma are
conspiring to delay the diagnosis, the researchers reported,
which can have a serious medical impact, since medications to
slow the illness' progress are most effective in its early
stages. |
|
|
Differences in Knowledge of Hepatitis B Among Vietnamese,
African- American, Hispanic, and White Adolescents in Worcester,
Massachusetts |
Adolescent
knowledge about risk of infection was low in this study.
Attention should be directed at providinghealth education on
hepatitis B to adolescents, particularly to Vietnamese. Health
care providers, community healtheducators, and others engaged in
the effort to control and eradicate hepatitis B should be
sensitive to the unique educationaland cultural needs of
high-risk southeast Asian adolescent populations. |
|
|
DISABILITY AWARENESS AND CHANGING ATTITUDES
|
Public
attitudes toward disability are often the greatest barrier for
people with disabilities |
|
|
Disclosure |
Hepatitis C (Hepatitis C Virus)
is a highly stigmatized disease. Revealing a diagnosis of Hepatitis C Virus
can cause anxiety on a number of levels. The ramifications of
this disclosure can impact medical, marital, family, insurance
and other area of one’s life. |
|
|
Doctors' and Nurses' Knowledge and Attitudes
|
From a social
perspective, AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) revives
longstanding issues about the relationships between health care
professionals and their patients. A particular issue is the
willingness of physicians and nurses to treat people with a
contagious, fatal, and stigmatized disease. |
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Don't let myths and misconceptions rule
your life! |
A diagnosis of epilepsy raises so many questions: Will I ever be
able to drive a car? What about a good job? Can I have children?
All these uncertainties may cause you more worry than the
seizures themselves. Like cancer and leprosy, epilepsy has been
feared and stigmatized throughout history, and you have probably
heard many stories about it. The fear and shame associated with
epilepsy have faded over the past century, but they have not
vanished. They will not disappear entirely until many more
people are informed about the facts concerning epilepsy. |
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|
Effect of HIV Reporting by Name on Use of HIV Testing in
Publicly Funded Counseling and Testing Programs |
No
significant declines in the total number of HIV tests provided
at counseling and testing sites in the months immediately after
implementation of HIV reporting occurred in any state, other
than those expected from trends present before HIV reporting.
|
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|
Endnotes
|
Listing of
references |
51 kb pdf
|
|
Epidemic Cholera in the New World
|
In Latin
America, as in other parts of the world, epidemiological field
investigations of cholera have defined the local routes of
transmission, identified unsuspected and correctable control
points, and quantified the effects of emergency measure
|
74 kb pdf
|
|
Epidemic Ravages Caregivers; Thousands die from diseases
contracted through needle sticks |
"When a crane
falls or a mine caves in, the government rushes to do something
about it. But when health care workers are dying, it's
invisible." |
|
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EPILEPSY |
The word epilepsy is derived from the Greek verb (epilamvanein)
("to be seized," "to be taken hold of" or "to be attacked"). In
ancient Greece, as now, people spoke of "having seized" and of
having had an "attack." This terminology derived from the even
older notion that all diseases represented attacks by the gods
or evil spirits, usually as punishment. Even in comparison with
all the advances made during the last century—more than at any
other time in history—consider how enormous and fundamental was
that first step attributed to Hippocrates in about 400
bc: that epilepsy
is a disease of the brain that must be treated by diet and
drugs, not religious incantations. |
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Epilepsy-associated stigma in
sub-Saharan Africa: The social landscape of a disease |
Many studies in developed regions of the world have con.rmed
that stigma contributes substantially to the psychological and
social burden of epilepsy. Relatively few studies of
epilepsy-associated stigma have been conducted in Africa, where
much of the world’s burden of epilepsy exists. In sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA), particularly in rural regions, close family ties,
communal living situations, and traditional belief systems
undoubtedly in.uence the expression of stigmatization. A review
of the epidemiologic, anthropologic, and sociologic studies of
epilepsy in SSA provides signi.cant insights into how people
with epilepsy (PWE) are perceived by their communities and
families and how these perceptions translate into limited social
and economic opportunities and possibly worsen the physical
vulnerability of PWE in this region. The medical community is
not exempt from the social process of stigmatization, and poor
public health infrastructure and medical services undoubtedly
contribute to the cycle of epilepsy-associated stigma through
wide treatment gaps, poor seizure control, and high rates of
seizure-related injury. In this review, we extrapolate data from
existing studies of epilepsy in SSA coupled with our own
experience providing epilepsy care in the region to give an
overview of the social landscape of this common, devastating
condition. |
Pdf 135 kb |
|
Eugenics—Sacred and Profane |
Dor Yeshorim only gives approval or disapproval of a match; it
does not inform individuals of their carrier status. “By keeping
the results a secret, the testing program avoids the cost of
counseling every carrier of a genetic disease,” Rabbi Ekstein
argued in a recent article. “You don’t need the counseling, we
do the job for you.” Of course, if a couple is told that they
are not a suitable match, they know by implication that each of
them is a carrier of one of the recessive genes. Thus while
keeping the specifics of people’s genetic status private, Dor
Yeshorim’s approach does not eliminate the potential for stigma.
“When a match is proposed and nothing happens,” says Rabbi
Tendler, “people naturally ask, why didn’t this happen? They
submitted to Dor Yeshorim and then decided not to get married.
This reveals immediately to their entire Jewish community that
there are two people who are blemished.” |
|
|
EVOLVED DISEASE-AVOIDANCE PROCESSES AND CONTEMPORARY ANTI-SOCIAL
BEHAVIOR: PREJUDICIAL ATTITUDES AND AVOIDANCE OF PEOPLE WITH
PHYSICAL DISABILITIES |
Drawing on evolutionary psychological logic, we describe a model
that links evolved mechanisms of disease-avoidance to
contemporary prejudices against individuals with physical
disabilities. Because contagious diseases were often accompanied
by anomalous physical features, humans plausibly evolved
psychological mechanisms that respond heuristically to the
perception of these features, triggering specific emotions
(disgust, anxiety), cognitions (negative attitudes), and
behaviors (avoidance). This disease-avoidance system is
over-inclusive: Anomalous features that are not due to disease
(e.g., limb amputation due to accident) may also activate it,
contributing to prejudicial attitudes and behaviors directed
toward people with disabilities. This model implies novel
hypotheses about contemporary variables that may amplify or
reduce disability-based prejudice. We discuss past research
within this context. We also present new evidence linking
chronic and temporary concerns about disease to implicit
negative attitudes toward and behavioral avoidance of disabled
others. Discussion focuses on the conceptual and practical
implications of this evolutionary approach. |
Pdf 130 kb |
|
Experience of stigma among Chinese
mental health patients in Hong Kong |
The stigma attached to a label of ‘mental illness’
can have a lasting impact on the person so labelled. The
expectation and actual experience of stigmatisation
can result in lowering of self-esteem and quality of
life persistent depression impairment in social
relationships and early treatment discontinuation
Coping with the stigma by avoidance, withdrawal and
secrecy is common, but may result in demoralisation,
social isolation and lost opportunities for
education, employment and housing |
|
|
Face Dynamics: From
Conceptualization to Measurement |
Having face
means both commanding social influence over others as well as
being influenced by others--another aspect of reciprocity. A
person who has face is in a position to exercise considerable
influence, even control, over others in direct or indirect ways;
at the same time, he/she is under a strong constraint to act in
accordance with the requirements for maintaining his/her face.
The more face, the greater the social visibility and public
scrutiny over one's actions, and hence the stronger the
constraint imposed on one's actions. Examples are abundant:
candidates seeking high public office in the United States run
the risk of having their private life, past and present, exposed
to microscopic scrutiny by the public. |
|
|
Fact Sheet: UNAIDS Describes HIV/AIDS Discrimination
|
All over the
world, the epidemics of HIV and AIDS are having a profound
impact, bringing out the best and the worst in people. They
trigger the best when individuals group together in solidarity
to combat government, community and individual denial, and to
offer support and care to people living with HIV and AIDS. They
bring out the worst when individuals are stigmatized and
ostracized by their loved ones, their family and their
communities, and discriminated against individually as well as
institutionally. |
|
|
Factors associated with refusal to treat HIV-infected patients:
the results of a national survey of dentists in Canada |
One in 6
dentists reported refusal to treat HIV-infected patients, which
was associated primarily with respondents' lack of belief in an
ethical responsibility to treat patients with HIV and fears
related to cross-infection |
|
|
Fear and Stigma:
The Epidemic within the SARS Outbreak |
Because of
their evolving nature and inherent scientific uncertainties,
outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases can be associated with
considerable fear in the general public or in specific
communities, especially when illness and deaths are substantial.
Mitigating fear and discrimination directed toward persons
infected with, and affected by, infectious disease can be
important in controlling transmission. Persons who are feared
and stigmatized may delay seeking care and remain in the
community undetected. |
|
|
Fear of dying and HIV infection
vs. hepatitis B Infection |
Fear of
certain death seems to account for the greater concern about
exposure to HIV than to Hepatitis B. |
|
|
Gender Symposium: "On The Basis of
Sex": Recognizing gender-based bias crimes. |
Advocating the interchangeability model, Professor McDevitt of
Northeastern University has argued that only stranger rape
should be included as a gender-based bias crime, excluding date
or acquaintance rape and all domestic violence because of the
lack of victim interchangeability. ... If that offender would
only assault that particular gay man or other gay men he knows
and would not go and search out other unknown gay men to "bash,"
that does not prevent his ultimate violent victimization of the
known neighborhood gay man from being characterized as a bias
crime. ... Likewise, the preexisting relationship between the
victim and perpetrator of a date rape or sexual battery should
not preclude characterization of that victimization as a bias
crime. ... But the question for bias crime purposes is whether
there is also a significant group component. While rape
may be sexually motivated in part, it is also motivated in
significant part by prejudice or bias against the victim's
gender. ... In states that recognize a gender category, courts
have just begun to recognize that domestic violence can
constitute a type of bias crime under certain circumstances.
|
|
|
GLOBAL APPEAL TO END STIGMA AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PEOPLE
AFFECTED BY LEPROSY |
Leprosy is among the world’s oldest and most dreaded diseases.
Without an effective remedy for much of its long history, it
often resulted in terrible deformity. It was also thought to be
extremely communicable. Patients were abandoned, forced to live
in isolation and discriminated against as social outcasts. |
Pdf 177 kb |
|
Health-Africa-AIDS-stigma: Africa's AIDS pandemic finds a friend
in stigma |
"Religious leaders have contributed to stigma because they
regard the victims as sinners and adulterers," Sheikh Al Haj
Yussuf, vice chair of Kenya Muslim Supreme Council, said.
"It is still
a taboo of sexuality. The link is: AIDS equals sex and sin,
because people are reluctant and fear to speak about it openly,"
said a South African priest, Reverend Jape Heath, a coordinator
of African Network of Religious Leaders Living with HIV. |
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Hepatitis C Tests, Treatment for New Jersey Prison Inmates Could
Cost State More Than $8 Million Per Year
|
A New Jersey
program to pay for hepatitis C tests and treatment for prison
inmates could cost between $4.5 million and $8 million this year
|
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|
Hepatitis C-change: Executive summary
|
The evidence
to this Enquiry clearly demonstrates that hepatitis C is a
highly stigmatized condition and that discrimination against
people with hepatitis C is rife. Such discrimination is often
driven by irrational fears about hepatitis C infection, due to
an inadequate understanding of how hepatitis C is transmitted.
However, a perhaps more powerful driving force for
discrimination than ignorance about hepatitis C transmission, is
that infection is inextricably linked with illicit drug use, a
highly stigmatized behavior. Evidence to this Enquiry makes it
abundantly clear that discrimination against people with
hepatitis C is often motivated by stereotyped responses towards
people on the basis of past, current or assumed injecting drug
use. |
|
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HIV And Homeless Shelters: Policy And Practice
|
The crises of
homelessness and HIV are two of our country's greatest
challenges. Rather than existing independent of each other, they
are inextricably interwoven. It is estimated that between one
third and one half of people living with AIDS in the United
States are either homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness.
This means that a disproportionate number of homeless
individuals are infected with HIV. A study tracking the spread
of HIV in the late '80's and early '90's in 16 U.S. cities
reported a median HIV seroprevalence of 3.4% for homeless
adults, compared to less than 1% for the general population.
|
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HIV Stigma Scale
|
This study
ask about some of the social and emotional aspect of having
HIV-questionnaire |
105 kb pdf
|
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HIV Testing and Confidentiality
|
[t]he
surveillance of an infectious disease has been defined as the
continuous scrutiny of all aspects of its spread. ... The
reporting of an infectious disease is often seen as a first step
in controlling its further spread. Reporting allows
determination of the presence of the disease in the population.
|
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HIV-Related Stigma and Discrimination - The Epidemic Continues
|
This article
is one of a series commissioned to mark the tenth anniversary of
the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, discussing past
developments and future directions in areas of policy and law
related to HIV/AIDS. It looks at HIV-related stigma and
discrimination. The article summarizes the present situation as
described in reports from numerous countries throughout the
world. It reviews the institutional, non-institutional, and
structural dimensions of HIV-related discrimination. It also
identifies some essential components of anti-discrimination
efforts: legal protection; public, workplace, and health-care
programs; community mobilization; and strategizing on the
determinants of health. |
|
|
HIV-Related Stigma and Knowledge in the United States:
Prevalence and Trends, 1991-1999 |
People with
AIDS and the social groups to which they belong have been
stigmatized worldwide since the epidemic began. Stigma has
interfered with effective societal response to AIDS and has
imposed hardships on people living with HIV as well as their
loved ones, caregivers, and communities. |
1,414 kb pdf
|
|
HIV-related stigma in a sample of HIV-affected older female
African American caregivers |
Nineteen
older female (mostly African American) in formal caregivers of
HIV-infected individuals participated in qualitative interviews
to explore their experiences with HIV-related stigma. Perceived
and directly experienced stigma were examined in the context of
disclosure of the presence of HIV disease. Overt HIV-related
stigma was rarely experienced by these respondents, primarily
because they had not widely disclosed the presence of HIV in the
family and therefore had not given anyone the opportunity to
ostracize or judge them. HIV-related stigma was internalized, so
that disclosure decisions were based on their anticipation of
censure. There also was evidence of associative stigma and of
stigma management. The findings suggest the need for social work
practitioners to increase
awareness of the needs of stigmatized, isolated HIV-affected
caregivers. |
|
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HIV/AIDS and Municipalities |
Although
AIDS has become very common it is still surrounded by silence.
People are ashamed to speak about being infected and many see it
as a scandal when it happens in their families. People living
with AIDS are exposed to daily prejudice born out of ignorance
and fear. |
|
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HIV/AIDS Stigma and Discrimination: A Kerala Experience |
It goes
without saying that HIV/AIDS is as much about social phenomena
as it is about biological and medical concerns…But the disease
is also associated with stigma, ostracism, repression and
discrimination as HIV affected individuals have been rejected by
their families, their loved ones and their communities. |
43 kb pdf |
|
HIV/AIDS Stigma: The Latest Dirty Secret |
The
rejection of HIV/AIDS stigma is based on the understanding that
all acts of social exclusion relating to HIV/AIDS are not only
morally wrong but also counterproductive to effective HIV/AIDS
prevention and treatment |
191 kb pdf |
|
Holocaust as a Paradigm of Empathy
|
Since 1945 we have seen genocide repeated, in Cambodia and
Uganda, in Rwanda and Bosnia. Modernity, with its access to
science and technology, has perfected the killing of others in a
way that makes the carnage exacted by religious wars of the past
pale by comparison. In fact, the very question "Why be good?"
challenges the assumption of modern Western thought that
goodness is innate. If we have to ask the question, then perhaps
we are not good; what we are trying desperately to do is to find
reasons to keep at bay the chaos unleashed by seeing what we
human beings really are. The Shoah is not an historical
aberration, but a paradigm of human behaviour |
|
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How Stigma Interferes With Mental
Healthcare |
The advocacy world is not in favor of the term "stigma" because
it suggests that the social wrong is in the person. I would not
throw away the word "stigma." I would argue with caution that
people who are stigmatized have some social cues that signal to
the rest of the world. Sometimes they are fairly obvious social
cues, such as skin color or other body characteristics. Other
people don't have an obvious mark but are labeled once they come
out, and they tend to have all the problems with stigma. An
example is gay people. We can't tell if someone is gay by
looking at them, only if someone points the person out.
Religious background, level of education, and history of being
in prison are all things you can't tell unless the person comes
out. |
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Impact of the Worst Incident of Abuse |
Women were asked how the abuse affected them in the past and in
the present. A qualitative overview indicates that abuse
generally impacted negatively on the emotional and psychological
functioning of survivors. Abuse also had a detrimental impact on
women’s relationships and daily functioning. Some physical
effects were reported, as well as personality changes and/or
changes in behaviour patterns. |
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INDIAN WOMEN AND AIDS
|
considers the
situation of women and HIV/AIDS in a country which is well into
an AIDS epidemic. Important vectors of the HIV virus in India
have been previously identified as migrant workers, long
distance truck drivers, commercial sex workers, blood donors,
and IV drug users. The new vector is the ordinary Indian mother.
|
|
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Indonesian Lepers Still Face
Discrimination, Despite Successes in Battling Disease |
The World Health Organization says the number of patients
suffering from leprosy worldwide has fallen by nearly 90 percent
over the last two decades. But the age-old ailment, also known
as Hansen's disease, is still claiming new victims, and lepers
continue to face a serious discrimination and ostracism. |
|
|
Islam, Irigaray, and the retrieval of gender
|
Women in countries such as Saudi Arabia, where they are not even
permitted to drive cars, are objectively the victims of an
oppression which is not the product of a divinely-willed
sheltering of a sex, but of ego, of the nafs of the male. In
this way, types of ‘Islamization’ being launched in several
countries today by individuals driven by resentment and
committed to an anthropomorphised and hence andromorphic God,
appear to bear no relation either to traditional fiqh discourse
or to the revelatory insistence on justice. This imbalance will
continue unless actualised religion learns to reincorporate the
dimension of ihsan, which valorises the feminine principle, and
also obstructs and ultimately annihilates the ego which
underpins gender chauvinism. We need to distinguish, as many
Muslim women thinkers are doing, between the expectations of the
religion’s ethos (as legible in scripture, classical exegesis,
and spirituality), and the actual asymmetric structures of
post-classical Muslim societies, which, like Christian, Jewish,
Hindu and Chinese cultures, contain much that is in real need of
reform. |
|
|
JAMA: Early Effects of a School-Based Human Immunodeficiency
Virus Infection and Sexual Risk Prevention Intervention
|
To determine
the short-term effect of a middle and high school-based human
immunodeficiency virus and sexuality intervention (Rochester
AIDS Prevention Project for Youth [RAPP]) on knowledge,
self-efficacy, and behavior intention. |
|
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Jerry Falwell |
Quotes of Jerry Falwell |
|
|
Kerala Health and Decentralization Project
Case Study: Thrikkakkara Co-operative Hospital |
The high cost
of specialized private medicine had convinced many local people
that they would never have access to affordable health care
above the PHC. But in 1996 the People’s Campaign aroused hopes
for a co-operative hospital. |
|
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Kerala, India
|
Efforts
within that region to change economic levels |
777 kb pdf
|
|
Lack of Awareness of Hepatitis C Risk Among Persons Who Received
Blood Transfusions Before 1990 |
Hepatitis C
virus (Hepatitis C Virus) is the most common chronic bloodborne virus
infection in the United States, with an estimated 2.7 million
persons chronically infected.' The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) recommends that persons with known risk
factors for Hepatitis C Virus infection be identified and offered counseling
and testing! This includes persons who may have been infected by
blood transfusions received before July 1992, when multi-antigen
anti-Hepatitis C Virus tests to screen donors came into use.To identify such
|
|
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Leprosy and the law - Burning issue for a burning out disease |
Rights of people suffering from Hansen's disease have evoked
renewed interest. One of the major causes could be the media
attention to the claims for compensation filed by some of the
Japanese people released from treatment of Hansen's disease. |
|
|
Lessons From the
India Epidemic |
The existence of several million female sexworkers along with millions
of
all other varieties in India show that we have a highly promiscuous way
of
life. We all pretend that we have the barest minimum of sexual life and
only the "westerners" are indulging in sex. If it is true, then how come
we, Asians have the two thirds of the world population? We should know
that we are more active in sex and for that matter, more in
'penetrative'
sex and for that matter, more in 'unsafe' sex among all the people in
the world. |
|
|
Local Planning and Democratic Participation as Mechanisms for
Improving Third World Health Conditions |
Recently,
however, the Kerala health situation faces many problems. The
quality of government health services has declined. Rapid
expansion of private sector health facilities has led to
overmedicalization to produce profits. This is seen in the very
high rate of caesarian births and increasing health expenditure.
Despite many decades of successful immunization programs, Kerala
has not achieved as much as it could in providing safe drinking
water to much of the population. In general, infectious and
parasitic diseases have not been fully conquered but the
longevity is leading to the spread of chronic and old age
diseases including diabetes, arthritis, various forms of cancer,
hypertension, and the like |
|
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