Nanda P; International Conference on AIDS (15th : 2004 : Bangkok, Thailand).
Int Conf AIDS. 2004 Jul 11-16; 15: abstract no. D12961.
Center for Health and Gender Equity, takoma Park, United States
Given, half of those living with HIV are women and women face a higher burden of stigma, the paper draw attention to the constraints of primary health systems to address gender and equity in access to care and prevention for HIV/AIDS. Drawing on data collected from 10 primary health care centers and interviews with 50 health providers and 80 women in a high prevalence state of Tamil Nadu, India, the study highlights the specific challenges and opportunities for improving gender equity in prevention, treatment and care for HIV/AIDS at the primary health care level. In seeking reproductive health care women experience, provider biases, stigma, discrimination and neglect. They have no record of their diagnosis or treatment. Community health workers only visit currently pregnant women and those eligible for contraception. Women, who have been sterilized, with an average age of 26 years, are not eligible for these visits limiting their access to any health care outreach for prevention. On the systems side, heal th care programs do not keep adequate patient records nor is there any follow up maintained, contributing to a weak referral system. Neither the provider nor the clients are aware of services and diagnostics available at the first referral of care. Health centers lack privacy for visual or auditory exams. From a gender equity perspective, service providers and treatment programs need to alleviate stigma and discrimination, maintain confidentiality and the address risk of partner violence for women, provide counseling for testing and prevention, maintain informed choice, provide accurate information about side effects, give referral for opportunistic infections and minimize the user dependent fees including cost of drugs and related services. This can be achieved if national health care program take care not to compartmentalize health systems for treatment versus prevention versus other health care but instead commit to building and revitalizing a health care system that provides prevention and treatment witha strong built in referral system.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Counseling
- Delivery of Health Care
- Ethnic Groups
- Female
- HIV Infections
- HIV Seropositivity
- Health
- Health Planning
- Health Planning Guidelines
- Health Services
- Humans
- India
- Pregnancy
- Primary Health Care
- Reproductive Medicine
- Sex
- United States
- therapy
Other ID:
UI: 102278460
From Meeting Abstracts