Aids Stigma

The AIDS epidemic has been accompanied by very strong negative public reactions to persons believed, to be infected by the immunodeficiency virus (HIV). As with other diseases throughout much of history, such as the Bubonic plague in the fourteenth century and the cholera outbreaks in the nineteenth century, a stigma has been attached to AIDS. Like AIDS itself, the AIDS stigma is a planetary problem, existing in communities with different social, traditional and religious beliefs. Attaching a stigma to AIDS has been primarily the result of both fear surrounding contagion and preexisting prejudice against the social groups most seriously affected by the epidemic.
People tend to socialize less with people who are known to have AIDS, or those that are known to have contracted the virus through their irresponsible immoral behaviour.
Negative attitudes have also been manifested in people’s behaviours. AIDS discrimination in the employment, housing, school policies and services such as...