Abstract
Background: Globally HIV/AIDS is a disease of great public health importance, Nigeria has the second largest burden of the disease in the world and currently about 3.4% of the general population are HIV positive. Purpose of the study: The study aims to understand the causes of stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and the effects of stigma and discrimination on the lives of PLWHA Methods: The study conducted using focused group discussions among people living with HIV/AIDS, who regularly attends ARV clinic, participants were selected based on the number of years of commencement of ARVs and those that have experienced one form of discrimination or the other. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and both manifest and latent content analysis was applied to analyze the texts. Findings: Following the analysis, two major themes emerged from the study: (1) Broken relationship and nondisclosure are consequences of stigma and discrimination, (2) Poor information strongly contributes to stigma and discrimination. These two themes were able to bring out the cause and effect of stigma and discrimination on the lives of PLWHA. Conclusion: Stigma and discrimination has contributed to broken relationship and promotes non-disclosure of HIV status to sexual partners, dissolution of families in Nigeria. Lack of proper information on the disease and poor education and information among the general public and especially health care workers (HCW) worsens stigma and discrimination.
Highlights
Human Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (HIV)/AIDS is a disease of great public health importance, Nigeria has the second largest burden of the disease in the world and currently about 3.4% of the general population are HIV positive.Purpose of the study: The study aims to understand the causes of stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and the effects of stigma and discrimination on the lives of PLWHA
Stigma and discrimination has contributed to broken relationship and promotes non-disclosure of HIV status to sexual partners, dissolution of families in Nigeria
The findings in the research shows that people in the general population and even some health care workers stigmatize PLWHA and often can be due to inadequate knowledge and information, which corroborates similar research in Nigeria by Manjok et al which shows that among physicians, nurses and laboratory scientist, lack of appropriate knowledge about HIV infection and transmission enhances the negative attitudes of health care workers and often times results in refusal to treat and care for PLWHA [18]
Summary
HIV/AIDS is a disease of great public health importance, Nigeria has the second largest burden of the disease in the world and currently about 3.4% of the general population are HIV positive.Purpose of the study: The study aims to understand the causes of stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and the effects of stigma and discrimination on the lives of PLWHA. Stigma and discrimination are the reflection of the erroneous perception of the disease and these had led to the poor management and treatment of the people living with HIV/AIDS especially in sub Saharan Africa due to the beliefs about how the disease is contracted especially among adults (commonly heterosexual route). Nigeria ranks third in the world among nations with high HIV burden [2], much emphasis has been done on prevention of the spread of disease and treatment of the disease, there are still a large of people who do not adopt preventive measures and often requires treatment, shame and societal neglects and non-acceptance has contributed to this lack of progress in both preventive and treatment measures. Discrimination arises from differences that can be consistently labeled and that set up the person as different from the perceived norm and can be based on various factors ranging from race, gender and sexual orientation [3]
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