HIV stigma in health care Thesis
HIV stigma in health care Thesis
Journal of the International AIDS Society
ss
Open AcceReview Combating HIV stigma in health care settings: what works? Laura Nyblade*, Anne Stangl, Ellen Weiss and Kim Ashburn
Address: International Center for Research on Women, Washington, DC, USA
Email: Laura Nyblade* – lnyblade@icrw.org; Anne Stangl – astangl@icrw.org; Ellen Weiss – eweiss@icrw.org; Kim Ashburn – kashburn@icrw.org
* Corresponding author
Abstract The purpose of this review paper is to provide information and guidance to those in the health care setting about why it is important to combat HIV-related stigma and how to successfully address its causes and consequences within health facilities. Research shows that stigma and discrimination in the health care setting and elsewhere contributes to keeping people, including health workers, from accessing HIV prevention, care and treatment services and adopting key preventive behaviours.
Studies from different parts of the world reveal that there are three main immediately actionable causes of HIV-related stigma in health facilities: lack of awareness among health workers of what stigma looks like and why it is damaging; fear of casual contact stemming from incomplete knowledge about HIV transmission; and the association of HIV with improper or immoral behaviour.
To combat stigma in health facilities, interventions must focus on the individual, environmental and policy levels. The paper argues that reducing stigma by working at all three levels is feasible and will likely result in long-lasting benefits for both health workers and HIV-positive patients. The existence of tested stigma-reduction tools and approaches has moved the field forward. What is needed now is the political will and resources to support and scale up stigma-reduction activities throughout health care settings globally.
Review A renewed global focus on HIV prevention, combined with a massive roll out of antiretroviral therapy, has focused worldwide attention on the ability of health facil- ities to deliver critical prevention, care and treatment serv- ices to a growing client population. HIV-related stigma and discrimination are now recognized as key barriers both to the delivery of quality services by health providers and to their utilization by community members and health providers themselves.
