Bond VA, Ginwalla R, Chikwampu D, Ndubani P, Ayles H; International Conference on AIDS.
Int Conf AIDS. 2002 Jul 7-12; 14: abstract no. TuPeD4971.
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Lusaka, Zambia
BACKGROUND: Despite the promotion of VCT and the increasingly availability of some other interventions for PLWHA, HIV infection in Zambia remains powerfully stigmatised and associated with social and physical death. In the face of this, people often opt for ignoring and/or hiding HIV and "safety" in secrecy. Even once the disease becomes explicit, many people continue to repress their HIV status. What are the particular dilemmas that face Zambian women when deciding to have a HIV test and/or disclose a HIV-positive test result? METHODS: Qualitative research, using a range of methods, conducted within two rural and three urban research studies between 1999 and 2001 in Zambia, looked - in part - at both women's concerns about and perceptions of HIV testing, and, in three of the studies, women's actual experiences of having a HIV test and disclosing a HIV-positive result. RESULTS: Findings demonstrate that it is harder for women to decide to have a HIV test than men and reveal what the main incentives and disincentives are for women to undergo a HIV test. If found HIV-positive, women fear all kinds of recrimination from slander to violent acts. Keeping a HIV-positive result as "a quiet story" keeps stigma and discrimination at bay. However, for women, there are often advantages to disclosing their status within a limited network, especially as they fall sick, and increasingly they are choosing to do so. CONCLUSIONS: Disclosure is at odds with the community norm to hide or ignore HIV, and the consequences of disclosure for women are, overall, more damaging than for men. HIV-positive women need to be provided with special, tangible and continued support to cope with particular problems they face. If this is available, the incentives for disclosing are greater. Counselling responsibilities need to be shared amongst health services, CBOs, families and churches. More longitudinal studies are needed on the actual consequences of disclosure for women.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Comprehension
- Confidentiality
- Counseling
- Disclosure
- Family
- Female
- HIV Infections
- HIV Seropositivity
- Humans
- Longitudinal Studies
- Male
- Mass Screening
- Rural Population
- Social Support
- Zambia
Other ID:
UI: 102256302
From Meeting Abstracts