Abstract
The study analyses the relationship between AIDS-related stigma and the processes of discrimination prior to diagnosis among pregnant women living with HIV/AIDS. The fieldwork involved interviews about the life trajectories of 29 pregnant women living with HIV/AIDS, recruited at two AIDS services in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The analysis revealed that before HIV diagnosis, social and gender inequalities experienced by these women reduced their access to material and symbolic goods that could have enhanced educational and career prospects and their ability and autonomy to exercise sexual and reproductive rights. Being diagnosed with HIV triggered fear of moral judgment and of breakdown in social and family support networks. Given these fears, pregnant women living with HIV/AIDS opt for concealment of the diagnosis. It is necessary for health services, NGOs and government agencies to work together to face the factors that fuel stigma, such as socioeconomic and gender inequalities, taboos and prejudices related to sexuality, and also develop actions to enable women to redefine the meaning of the disease.
Highlights
MethodologyThe current state of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic confirms the importance of medical advances aimed at prolonging life expectancy and increasing quality of life among people already infected with the disease, and at preventing new cases
We suggest that stigma is part of a social process that hinders access to material and symbolic goods among stigmatized groups, and that governments and other actors should tackle it through micro and macro structural interventions 3,4
This study aims to understand the relationship between AIDS-related stigma and the social processes that result in discrimination prior to diagnosis among pregnant women living with HIV/AIDS in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Summary
MethodologyThe current state of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic confirms the importance of medical advances aimed at prolonging life expectancy and increasing quality of life among people already infected with the disease, and at preventing new cases. The reach of antiretroviral therapy (ART) will remain limited unless this treatment is integrated with sociopolitical and structural interventions to ensure access to early diagnosis and treatment. Such interventions include measures to reduce the stigma attached to AIDS, which other research has recognized to be a factor that prevents many people from seeking appropriate treatment 1. Based on a critical analysis of the appropriation of this concept by the health field, this work assumes that the production of stigma is not inherently rooted in social interactions and is not restricted to assigning negative characteristics to people who have the disease. We suggest that stigma is part of a social process that hinders access to material and symbolic goods among stigmatized groups (including information, use of resources and health care), and that governments and other actors should tackle it through micro and macro structural interventions 3,4
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