Original Research Article
Year: 2017 | Month: October | Volume: 7 | Issue: 10 | Pages: 22-26
Misconceptions and Stigma about HIV/AIDS: Perception among Attendees of Rural Tertiary Care Centre of Haryana
Dr Ravinder Pal, Dr Tarun
Assistant Professor; Department of General Medicine, Bhagat Phool Singh Government Medical College for Women, Khanpur Kalan (Sonepat) Haryana, India
Corresponding Author: Dr Tarun
ABSTRACT
Globally an estimated 36.7 million people (0.8%) were living with HIV/AIDS by the end of year 2016 and India account for 2.1 million being third largest HIV epidemic country in the world. The vulnerabilities that drive the epidemic are different in different parts of the country. The NACP-IV had made the elimination of stigma and discrimination which refers to prejudice, negative attitudes and abuse directed at people living with HIV/AIDS a major focus. However, people living with HIV/AIDS in India still continue to experience high levels of discrimination in a variety of settings including households, the community and workplaces hence this study was planned.
Objective: To find out misconception and stigma related to HIV/AIDS among people attending rural tertiary care centre of Haryana
Methodology: This cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted among persons more than 18 years of age selected through simple random sampling attended rural tertiary care centre during study period from 1st March 2017 to 30th April 2017. Data entry was done in Microsoft excel version 2010. Written informed consent was taken from the participants before conducting the interview. Percentages, proportions were used for statistical analysis.
Observations: All the respondents had heard about HIV/AIDS and 176 (98%) elaborated that it is a fatal disease. 14 (8%) study population perceived transmission of disease by shaking hands, 13 (7%) by mosquito bite and 9 (5%) each by polluted air and water. 13 (7%) study participants said that persons of HIV/AIDS should be outcast from the society and 162 (90%) perceived that equality behavior to be done with persons of HIV/AIDS while 13 (7%) replied that their children should not be allowed to give admission in school.
Conclusion and recommendations: The present study found that the misconceptions and stigma related to HIV/AIDS still persists among the population. Hence the need of hour is to address these issues through effective implementation of key strategies of NACP-IV on priority basis.
Key words: Misconceptions, Stigma, Perception, Rural tertiary care centre