"HIV/AIDS is not merely a medical problem: the
manner in which the virus is impacting upon society reveals the
intricate way in which social, economic, cultural, political and
legal factors act together to make certain sections of society more
vulnerable. The epidemic exposes the method and the impact of
marginalisation and inequality in clear terms.
Marginalised groups in our society have little or no access to
basic fundamental and Human Rights such as food, medical services
and information. Many of these groups are ostracised by society at
large, and their lifestyles criminalized, making it practically
impossible for them to participate in mainstream processes whereby
they could demand their rights. Coupled with this dismal situation,
there is minimal awareness about HIV and no real options for safer
lifestyles. The stark reality of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is thus that
people are becoming HIV positive because they have no access to
basic fundamental Human Rights. For the same reasons, the impact of
infection is a lot graver for those with no access to rights. It is
time to recognise this link between marginalisation, Human Rights
and vulnerability.
It is also time to recognise that the HIV/AIDS epidemic itself
has given rise to a range of Human Rights violations. The refusal of
treatment, denial of access to essential drugs including
antiretroviral therapy, discrimination in the health care and
employment sectors, women being deprived of their rights and thrown
out of their homes etc are just some examples of these violations.
Apart form having a serious impact on the lives of people living
with HIV, these violations are pushing the epidemic underground.
Unless these Human Rights violations are addressed, there cannot be
the creation of an enabling environment, where people come forward
to access health and other services, or even get tested.
There is also a need to understand the exact manner in which
factors of gender, caste, region, class, sexual orientation
influence the impact of these Human Rights issues for different
sections of society. Along with social and economic factors, there
are laws, which complicate the influence of these factors. To
understand these different contexts would be the first step in
addressing the problems they entail." Report of the National
Conference on Human Rights and HIV/AIDS
|
A Call For Community: Two Papers on HIV and AIDS Related Stigma
in Africa
|
It is widely
recognized that HIV/AIDS-related stigma is both widespread and a
significant obstacle to the provision of effective care and
prevention measures. Beyond that statement, however, little is
certain in terms of how pervasive HIV/AIDS-related stigma is,
what its causes are, what forms it takes and what steps can be
taken to reduce or eliminate it in the many different settings
in which it occurs. Indeed, it is possible that the word stigma
itself is inappropriate or does not cover the full range of
negative actions and attitudes that may be directed towards
people living with HIV/AIDS or are otherwise identified with the
disease. |
Pdf 486 kb |
|
A jihad against Aids
|
If the best
vehicle for educating a Muslim population about Aids is one that
carries authority, enjoys mass reach and possesses the power to
convince, who better than the person who leads prayers at a
mosque? |
|
|
Addressing HIV-Related Stigma and Discrimination in Africa |
|
|
|
Addressing Stigma
in Implementing HIV/AIDS |
Unless
stigma is addressed, effective implementation of an HIV/AIDS
policy is impossible. This paper describes the experience of
ACORD Uganda in their efforts to implement an effective
workplace policy. It focuses in particular on the importance of
addressing stigma within the organisation - both as an objective
of the policy itself and as a prerequisite of its effective
implementation. |
Pdf 257 kb |
|
Administration Targets AIDS Prevention
|
The Bush
administration has pulled information about the effectiveness of
condoms from a government Web site and is engaged in a "witch
hunt" against those who promote condoms in the fight against
AIDS, several groups charged Monday. |
|
|
Adoption Agency Admits HIV Discrimination |
In the first
known case in the country challenging a private adoption
agency’s refusal to provide services to a couple because one of
them is HIV-positive, a new York couple has settled a lawsuit
charging Children of the World, an adoption agency licensed in
new Jersey and new York, with violating federal and state laws
prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities,
including HIV/AIDS. |
103 kb pdf |
|
AIDS
& Communication Issues |
Presentation
by W Ssany-Sseruma—African HIV Policy Network |
Pdf 95 kb |
|
AIDS
Communication-An International view |
HIV/AIDS
requires attention to sexuality, not just sex and its biological
consequences |
|
|
AIDS
edict fuels dispute |
Man with
disease banned from using pool at mobile home park |
|
|
AIDS/HIV Disease and Socio-Culturally Diverse Populations |
Culture embodies
the values, attitudes, beliefs and practices of a group as well
as its roles and structures, communication styles, technology,
art, and artifacts. The numbers of reported cases of AIDS/HIV
disease are dramatically increasing in some ethnic and minority
groups. |
|
|
Aids orphans 'to double'
|
The number of
children orphaned by Aids will almost double to 25m by the end
of the decade, experts predict. |
|
|
AIDS-case studies - conceptual |
This paper
presents outline accounts of some social and economic features
of the HIV/AIDS epidemics in five countries |
Pdf 71 kb |
|
Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
|
The Americans
With Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law that ensures
equal opportunity in employment, public accommodations,
transportation, state and local government services and
telecommunications for people with disabilities. |
|
|
Analysis of the policies, pronouncements-stigma in Nigeria
(Large report-increased
down-load time) |
The
international community had long recognized the limiting effect
of HIV-related stigma and discrimination on the control of
HIV/AIDS. It is known to undermine the ability of individuals,
families and societies to protect themselves and provide support
and reassurance to those affected |
|
|
Analytical Review of Quarantine! : East European Jewish
immigrants and the New York City epidemics of 1892 |
Howard
Markel's Quarantine! examines the typhus fever and
cholera epidemics that struck New York City in early and late
1892, respectively. Because typhus fever was traced to a boat
load of Russian Jewish immigrants, Jews from throughout Eastern
Europe were stigmatized. Only months after typhus fever struck
the city, the cholera epidemic began. While the second disease
appeared more widespread, the Eastern European Jews were once
again blamed. A history of the political, health, immigration,
and discrimination issues of the year, the book is aimed at a
broad audience from high-schoolers to adults |
|
|
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. This
study assessed internal/individualistic attributions for wealth
(e.g., ambition, perseverance, etc.), and external/structural
attributions for poverty (e.g., no benefits, low paying jobs,
etc.). The significance of holding just-world beliefs and of
making internal attributions for wealth and external
attributions for poverty in relationship to attitudes toward the
poor was analyzed using multiple regression analysis to predict
attitudes toward poor persons. In the sample (N = 112),
just-world beliefs were found to be a significant predictor of
attitudes toward the poor. Participants having high just-world
beliefs had negative attitudes toward the poor, and participants
who believed the world is unjust had more positive attitudes
toward the poor. Attributions for poverty and wealth were not
found to be significant predictors of attitudes toward the poor. |
|
|
Big Issues In Brief Scaling up responses to HIV/AIDS |
Stigma looms
large and ominous, shadowing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It relates
to every HIV intervention, including general prevention, the
prevention of mother-to-child transmission, antiretroviral
treatment, and care and support for the patient and family,
including children. On an institutional level, stigma plays a
major role, affecting the ability of public health workers to
prevent infection, to treat and to help people living with
HIV/AIDS, and to assist loved ones in managing and coping with
the condition. On a personal level, stigma can mean loneliness,
abandonment, ostracism, violence, starvation, and death. |
Pdf 206 kb |
|
BioTerrorism |
Testimony
before the Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial
Management, and Intergovernmental Relations |
1,229 kb pdf
|
|
|
|
Breaking the silence - Stigma,
discrimination and HIV/AIDS |
Hers is not the sort of life anyone would wish on his or her
worst enemy. To describe it as rough would be an
understatement.
|
|
|
Budget Would Cut Medicaid
Payments |
Pres Bush's
budget would rein in growth of Medicaid by reducing payments to
public hospitals and cracking down on state efforts to get
additional federal money; administration refers to 'closing
loopholes' and 'abusive practices,' |
|
|
CDC Hindered by GOP Oversight
|
Bush
administration audits of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention have provoked complaints from center officials who
say the requests are hindering the organization's ability to
effectively execute HIV prevention programs. |
|
|
Celebrating Erving Goffman |
Stigma leads us from the
total institution back to everyday life, but now we are armed with a
vision of how the self can be deeply discredited even if not entirely
destroyed. Stigma is "The Presentation of Discredited
Self in Everyday Life." |
|
|
Cohesiveness of society
|
Civil society
is a distinct realm of modern human experience: family, friends,
neighbors, and citizens. It is the social glue that holds a
country together and includes the strength of families,
community voluntarism, interest groups, philanthropic
associations, friendships, selflessness, public and civic
spirit—the moral elements of society |
326 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 |
|
COPING WITH STIGMA, DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE: SEX WORKERS
TALK ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES |
Participants
indicated that they experience stigma and isolation related to
moral judgments people make about the sexual nature of the work
they do. Some spoke of hiding the nature of the work they do as
a strategy to cope with the stigma attached to sex work. Eleven
of the seventeen participants indicated that they try to keep
the work they do secret and eight indicated that they lie about
what they do. Stigma emerged as a significant barrier to help
seeking and was found to hinder access to both informal and
formal sources of support. |
Pdf 924 kb |
|
Costs & results of Information Systems |
Costs and
results of Information systems for poverty monitoring, health
sector reform, and local government reform in Tanzania |
1,071 kb pdf |
|
Counteracting Stigma in Sexual Health Care Settings |
Sexual
health clinics and the people who visit them commonly face
stigma. Sexually transmitted infections have historically been
used to divide people into "clean" and "dirty". A grounded
theory study of the work of sixteen nurses in six Sexual Health
services in New Zealand was undertaken to explore the management
of sexual health care. The study uncovered the psychological
impact of negative social attitudes towards the people who visit
sexual health services and to the staff who work there. Sexual
health nurses manage the results of stigma daily and reveal in
their interactions with clients a process of destigmatisation. |
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Democracy, Dictatorship, and Infant mortality
|
Explains the
relationship between these three issues |
94 kb pdf
|
|
Disclosure of HIV Infection Among Asian/Pacific Islander
American Women |
For Asians/Pacific Islanders, disclosure of HIV may be
particularly difficult because of its association with death,
illness, drugs, and homosexuality, topics deemed to be "taboo"
in Asian cultures |
|
|
Discrimination: |
Yes. People who
are HIV-positive or who have AIDS are protected from employment
discrimination under both the Connecticut Human Rights Law (CGSA
§46a-60) and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Both of these statutes prohibit discrimination in employment on the
basis of a person’s disability. |
|
|
Don’t treat me like I have leprosy |
We all have
prejudices. Even the most fair-minded of us will at times harbour
irrational stereotypes of people who are in some way different. |
422 kb pdf |
|
Editorial attacks shift away from condoms in HIV prevention
|
The authors also note that although condoms are extremely cost
effective, their importance to HIV prevention seems to have been
forgotten in the push for global treatment access, and that
other substantial obstacles still exist to effective condom
distribution schemes. |
|
|
Effectiveness of Various IEC in Improving Awareness and Reducing
Stigma Related to HIV/AIDS Among School going Teenagers |
Stigma is
defined as a ‘significantly discrediting attribute’ possessed by
a person with an ‘undesired difference’. Stigma is a common
human reaction to disease. Throughout history many diseases
have carried considerable stigma, including leprosy,
tuberculosis, cancer, mental illness and many STDs. Now HIV/AIDS
is the topmost in the list of diseases to be stigmatized. |
Pdf 259 kb |
|
ETHICS IN PUBLIC HEALTH INSTITUTIONS
|
The July 2002
Health Policy and Ethics Forum on ethics in public
health research and practice addresses a number of thorny issues
facing public health institutions. One of the
most fundamental issues confronting public health
workers is the problem of protecting confidentiality
in public health activities. This problem raises the
question of what is and what is not research in the
public health arena. |
|
|
EVERYBODY
HAS AN HIV STATUS! Has stigma kept you from knowing yours?
|
Stigma keeps
people who are HIV- infected from getting the care they need,
and from feeling safe in their own communities. At the same
time, stigma allows others to deny that they personally are
likely to be infected or affected by HIV. This denial makes
people who are infected seem abnormal, and it becomes easier to
believe that they are "different," that HIV only happens
someplace else. Not true, at all. |
|
|
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 behaviours (avoidance). |
130 kb pdf |
|
EXAMPLES OF DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT |
Impairment
in pre-work, Race discrimination in work, Pregnancy
discrimination and victimization at work, Prospective employee
asked age at interview, Race discrimination, Young worker
harassed at work, Sex discrimination and sexual harassment |
Pdf 285 kb |
|
Examples of Stigma and Discrimination |
Examples of
Stigma in Life situations
|
|
|
Examples of Stigma and Discrimination |
The
workplace remains a potentially unsafe environment for people
with HIV/AIDS, whether they are currently at work, returning to
work, or looking for work for the first time. |
65 kb pdf |
|
|
|
For world, arrogance instead of help
|
The Bush
administration never seems more out of touch with global reality
than when it wades into issues of population control.
|
|
|
Former
Maryland governor wants public registry for people with AIDS |
``People should know if they are around people with AIDS,'' said
Schaefer, a former governor and mayor of Baltimore. ``I feel it's
absolutely necessary that a registry be set up. It (AIDS) is
an epidemic in Africa and it's an epidemic here.''
|
|
|
Gender, AIDS, and ARV Therapies-ensuring that women gain
equitable access to drugs |
Given
limited resources, choices will inevitable be made about who
will be treated and when, raising the issues of equity in access
to treatment for sub-groups of those infected |
181 kb pdf |
|
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 |
|
HIV/AIDS and Human Rights |
Discrimination adds to the daily struggles faced by the growing number
of people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States—people who are
predominantly poor and disproportionately African American or Latino/a.
Almost every agency told us that the biggest problems facing their clients
involve meeting basic needs—coping with poverty, hunger, illiteracy,
inadequate medical care, lack of transportation, and homelessness…
Individuals living with HIV/AIDS need to know their rights and need to
resources to advocate for themselves when their rights are threatened
|
1153 kb pdf |
|
HIV Mandatory Test May lead to False Security |
MANDATORY
testing may lead to false security in the military that an
HIV/AIDS free environment has been created, |
|
|
HIV/AIDS-related Stigma and Discrimination: A Conceptual
Framework and an Agenda for Actions—Horizon Report
|
Jonathan Mann
identified three phases of the HIV/AIDS epidemic: the epidemic
of HIV, the epidemic of AIDS, and the epidemic of stigma,
discrimination, and denial |
511 kb pdf
|
|
HIV/AIDS-related Stigma and Discrimination-Asia |
HIV / AIDS -
related stigma and discrimination (S&D) not only make life
unbearable for the estimated 4.2 million people living with the
virus in South Asia. S&D are regarded by many as the greatest
barriers preventing further HIV infections, providing adequate
care, support and treatment |
|
|
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 |
|
HIV-Related Stigma and Knowledge in the United States:
Prevalence and Trends, 1991-1999 |
Overt expressions of stigma declined throughout the 1990s, with support
for its most extreme and coercive forms (e.g., quarantine) at very low
levels by 1999. However, inaccurate beliefs about the risks posed by
casual social contact increased, as did the belief that people with AIDS
(PWAs) deserve their illness |
|
|
HIV/AIDS Stigma |
A number of
studies have provided evidence that stigma is associated with
delays in HIV testing by people who are at high risk of being
infected with HIV |
275 kb pdf |
|
Human rights abuses & HIV transmission to
girls |
The catastrophe
of HIV/AIDS in Africa, which ahs already claimed over 18 million
lives on that continent, has hit girls and women harder than
boys and men. In many countries of eastern and southern
Africa, HIV prevalence among girls under age eighteen is four to
seven times higher than among boys the same age, an unusual
disparity that means a lower average age of death from AIDS, as
well as more deaths overall, among women than men |
607 kb pdf |
|
HUMAN
SEXUALITY: CONDOMS: LIFE SAVERS OR KILLERS? |
In 1987, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop publicly recommended
that people use condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV, which
develops in to AIDS. Some conservative Christian organizations
attacked his stance. Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum accused him
of promoting "safe fornication with condoms" as "a cover-up for the
homosexual community." Conservative anti-tobacco advocate and a
close colleague of Koop defended the Surgeon General. She said:
"I hate to be in a public debate with Phyllis Schlafly, since we have
a lot of things in common. But she is wrong about Dr. Koop....In
everything I've read in Dr. Koop's written speeches, he stresses
monogamy as the first line of defense against AIDS."
|
|
|
Illness, Stigma and AIDS |
Imagine a
disease that arouses great fear throughout the United States,
especially in New York and other large cities where it is
rampant. Imagine that the disease has no cure and is fatal to
most people who manifest its symptoms. Physicians prescribe a
variety of treatments but with little success |
Pdf 119 kb |
|
Impact of Armed conflict on Child Development |
The impact of armed conflict cannot be fully
understood without looking at the related effects on women,
families and the community support systems that provide
protection and a secure environment for development. Children's
well-being is best ensured through family and community-based
solutions that draw on local culture and an understanding of
child development.
|
|
|
Impact of Faith-based organizations |
Recently
faith-based organizations have generated increasing interest as
agents for preventing and mitigating the HIV/AIDS epidemic. |
Pdf 503 kb |
|
INDONESIA care-Unaids care and support |
Providing care
and support for HIV-positive people, eliminating discrimination
and stigma, and promoting the involvement of people living with
HIV/AIDS in the response to the epidemic are priorities for
government, donor and nongovernmental organizations and HIV
positive people's support groups |
65 kb pdf |
|
Influence of the Church in Bringing About Change
|
Statistics of
HIV/AIDS prevalence in Namibia are not impressive. The figures
are worrying. However, a holistic approach to fighting the
pandemic may reverse the trend, if the ongoing efforts are
maintained or intensified. Led by the Lutheran Church in the
country, religious organizations have assumed a major role in
this endeavor |
|
|
Integrating Ethnomedicine Into Public Health
|
From an
anthropological perspective, ethnomedicine—meaning
the folk medicines of specific ethnic groups—depends
on location. Preliterate indigenous populations used
plants that were available in their local environments
to treat illness and promote health. |
|
|
International Organizations of Medical Sciences-Ethical
Guidelines |
The
Guidelines relate mainly to ethical justification and
scientific validity of research; ethical review; informed
consent; vulnerability of individuals, groups, communities and
populations; women as research subjects; equity regarding
burdens and benefits; choice of control in clinical trials;
confidentiality; compensation for injury; strengthening of
national or local capacity for ethical review; and obligations
of sponsors to provide health-care services |
|
|
Interventions to reduce HIV stigma |
This paper
reviews 21 interventions that have explicitly attempted to
decrease AIDS stigma both in the developed and developing
countries and 9 studies that aim to decrease stigma related with
other diseases |
Pdf 689 kb |
|
Interventions to Reduce HIV/AIDS Stigma: What Have we Learned? |
This paper
reviews 21 interventions that have explicitly attempted to
decrease AIDS stigma both in the developed and developing
countries and 9 studies that aim to decrease stigma related with
other diseases. |
|
|
Interventions to Reduce HIV/AIDS Stigma: What Have we
Learned?—Horizon Report |
Stigma is a
common human reaction to disease. Throughout history man
diseases have carried considerable stigma, including leprosy,
tuberculosis, cancer, mental illness, and many STDs. HIV/AIDS is
only the latest disease to be stigmatized |
609 kb pdf
|
|
Interventions: Research on Reducing Stigma
|
The term
stigma has many associations and implications rooted in history,
social science, and public health, but the historical concept of
physical stigmata and the sociological framework of deviance and
social interactions fall short of research needs for guiding
desirable public health interventions to reduce stigma.
|
|
|
Keeping the Public in the Dark |
People cannot
be trusted to make judgments about the scientific process,
therefore, truthful information about scientists and their
potential biases must be kept secret. Mum’s the word. Such
paternalism is curious coming from conservatives, unless the
subtext is to champion profit over integrity |
|
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