Stigma And Discrimination In Living With HIV

'Acquired Immune Deficiency Virus (AIDS) is caused by a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that weakens the immune system , making the body susceptible to and unable to recover from op­portunistic diseases that lead to death' (USAID, 2010, pp.173). It is one of the major challenges for Pub­lic Health and it is the world's leading infectious killer. According to the WHO, 35 million people are living with HIV worldwide. In middle and low income countries is the majority of infec­ted people. In 2013, 2.1 million new infections occurred in low and middle income countries (WHO, 2013). Estimated 39 million deaths occurred due to HIV globally. The area that is affected most by HIV is sub-Saharan Africa and in 2013 there were 24.7 million people living with HIV. About 12.9 million people are treated with anti-retrovirals (ARVs) world­wide, among these 11.7 people have access to ARVs in low and middle income countries, which is 36% (WHO, 2014). There are several ways of an HIV transmission, including: unprotected sexual intercourse (vaginal or anal) and oral sex contaminated blood transfusions contaminated needles or other sharp objects, such as razorblades mother to child-transmission during pregnancy, birth or breast­feeding (WHO, 2013). Sex workers and their clients, men having sex with men and drug users have been identified as key populations with a higher risk of an infection (AVERT, 2014a). The use of condoms, regularly test­ing, male circumcision and anti-retroviral therapy (ART) used as preventive methods can reduce the risk of getting an HIV infection. ART is mostly used during pregnancies to avoid a mother to child transmission, which is basically zero if medication is taken. HIV is an incurable virus, but with the ARV treatment it can be controlled and enables people living with HIV to live a healthy life. (WHO, 2014). 1.1 The HIV-epidemic in Kenya Kenya is located in Western Africa and has an estimated population of 45,010,056 million with an average life expectancy of 63.52 years (IndexMundi, 2014). million people. Among the sub-Saharan countries it is one of the most affected areas of the HIV and AIDS epidemic. UNAIDS (2015) states that 'Kenya has the second largest epidemic in Eastern and Southern Africa and the fourth largest globally.' The National AIDS Control Council (NACC) mentioned that he first cases of HIV occurred in 1984 among sex workers and only a short while after the first cases have been detected in the general population (NEPHAK, 2011). The Kenyan government has declared HIV as a nation­al dis­aster in 1998 (NEPHAK, 2011). The epidemic reached peak in the mid 90's with a prevalence rate of 10.5%. From then the rates started to decrease at about 40% and now remains stable at a preval­ence rate of 6.7%. This can be explained by the rapid scale up of ART and also a decrease in the in­cidence rate (NACC, 2014). Currently an overall of 5.6% people, aged 15-64, were infected with HIV, which is representing 1,192,000 people. The prevalence rate among women is higher than in men, 6.9% versus 4.4%. Fur­thermore the percentage of HIV infections is higher in urban areas (6.5%) compared to rural areas (5.1%) (NASCOP, 2014). The county …show more content…
Stigma and discrimination have various consequences for people who are living with HIV. First of all, they are treated as outcasts by family members, friends or even the community. Second, many may receive poor treatment in healthcare facilities or in schools, there human rights may be viol­ences and they may have psychological damages. This can result in not getting tested for HIV or not receiving treatment or visiting counselling …show more content…
Mostly stigma and discrimination are directed towards this groups, since their behaviours are not ap­proved by the society (AVERT, 2014b). In Kenya, HIV/AIDS illustrates an additional burden for wo­men, as the higher prevalence rates among them show above. Women are extremely vulnerable to stigma, especially in developing countries. They already have disadvantages regarding access to treatment, financial support and education. A study conducted by VanTyler & Sheilds (2014) that 70% of the poor population are women and that poverty has a large impact on the women's well-being. mentioned that Furthermore they are socially, culturally and economically disadvantaged. Moreover women are considered as the main transmitters of sexually transmitted diseases (UN­AIDS,