Wallman S; International Conference on AIDS.
Int Conf AIDS. 1996 Jul 7-12; 11: 230 (abstract no. Th.C.210).
Sociology & Anthropology, University of Hull, London, UK. Fax: (44)181 788 6964.
Issue: High prevalence of HIV/AIDS changes local views of other STD and affects treatment-seeking for curable infections. Project: Because exposure to untreated STD increases vulnerability to HIV infection, lay ignorance or denial of STD and/or its relation to AIDS will affect HIV incidence. The title statement was recorded in the course of multidisciplinary research into the informal economy of health and treatment-seeking in Kampala. Its meaning was clarified by survey and interview data on local norms and the constraints on treatment choice, and by translation of glossaries of STD and other symptoms. Analysis of these data continues. Local symptomatology and aetiology of STD/AIDS were afterwards matched against epiodemiological/ medical reasoning. Results: Five explanations of why "STD went when AIDS came" show that folk' and scientific' models need not be incompatible: (i) AIDS is so much worse in the public perception that STD has lost significance. (ii) Late in the epidemic, AIDS is talked about, is the subject of health education, has become a common' problem, and is less stigmatised than STD which remains private, shameful, hidden. (iii) Condom use may prevent new STD but cannot prevent established HIV infection. (iv) Much STD remains within extra high risk networks now shrunken by AIDS deaths. (v) One person dying of AIDS or cured of STD lowers prevalence as well as incidence of STD. Lessons Learned: 1. Communities with high AIDS mortality will have psychological and social reasons for playing down the role and presence of treatable STD. 2. Lay perceptions of similarities, differences, and relations between STD and AIDS affect the likelihood of curable STD going untreated, and (so) may further the spread of HIV. 3. Folk' statements may be confirmed by or compatible with scientific findings. 4. Parallels between them can be adapted to AIDS prevention even if they are based on different model assumptions.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Case-Control Studies
- Drug Interactions
- Evaluation Studies
- HIV Infections
- HIV Seropositivity
- Humans
- Incidence
- Infection
- Interpersonal Relations
- Physical Examination
- Research
- Uganda
- methods
- therapy
Other ID:
UI: 102220207
From Meeting Abstracts