CHECK OST#2

ENGLISH
HIV
When the STIGMA is more
harmful than infection
The Institute for Democracy and Civil Society (IDZ) and the Deutsche Aids Hilfe (DAH)
presented the research results of the study “positive voices 2.0”. The results were
shockingly little better than in a partially comparable study from 2011.
COMMUNITY RESEARCH
For the study, almost 1,000 HIV-positive people
took the time to fill out the online questionnaire
about their personal experiences and
consequences with discrimination. In addition,
almost 500 HIV-positive people were interviewed
about their story. What is special about
this project is that it not only gathers knowledge
about the current status of discrimination
against HIV-positive people, but also that
the interviewers themselves are HIV-positive.
This lowers the respondents' inhibitions and at
the same time increases their willingness to
be completely transparent.
This study is also a community project because
the respondents are guided through every step
of the research, ensuring participatory research.
DEALING WITH POSITIVE PEOPLE
LAGS BEHIND SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
Around 73% of those surveyed state that in
many areas of their lives nobody knows about
the disease, because the social restrictions
after this coming out are far-reaching. Due to
the fact that there is still too little education,
there is still a social stigma towards the
disease that no longer holds true. Despite the
advances in medicine since the last survey
in 2011, there is still only slow progress in
societital discussions and openness towards
the topic of HIV.
According to Matthias Kuske, project
coordinator of the study "positive voices
2.0", it makes no sense to treat people
with HIV differently from other people,
or to adopt more stringent hygiene
concepts, because HIV is no longer
transmissible with the right therapy.
STILL SEVERE DISCRIMINATION
Thanks to the good therapy offered nowadays,
three quarters of those surveyed stated that
they had no, or only a few, health problems.
Compared to the health aspect, which ostensibly
should be the most important one, a
full 52% of the respondents state that they
are impaired by prejudice in the social area
of ​their life. The ignorance of the effects of
the disease and the ways in which the virus
is transmitted not only leads to HIV-positive
people being misunderstood. It leads to their
discrimination and different treatment in the
private sphere, with 16% of those surveyed
stating that being open about their infection
even led to general health services refusing
treatment on the part of the doctor.
CONSEQUENCES AND DEMANDS
This project has brought self-confidence,
strength and, above all, new contacts to the
interviewees and also to the interviewers. In
order to steer the discourse about HIV in a
hopefully better, more unprejudiced direction,
the project calls for an appropriate presentation
of what life with HIV really is like and
what HIV therapy does.
Matthias Kuske sums it up, "Today people with
HIV can live, love and work like everyone else."
(Marco Bast,ck,mb)
Grafik: Iuliia / stock.adobe.com
50 CHECK OST #2