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Health Care
Many reports reveal the extent to which people are
stigmatised and discriminated against by health care systems. Many
studies reveal the reality of withheld treatment, non-attendance of
hospital staff to patients, HIV testing without consent, lack of
confidentiality and denial of hospital facilities and medicines.
Also fuelling such responses are ignorance and lack of knowledge
about HIV transmission.
"There is an almost hysterical kind of fear…at all
levels, starting from the humblest, the sweeper or the ward boy, up
to the heads of departments, which makes them pathologically scared
of having to deal with an HIV-positive patient. Wherever they have
an HIV patient, the responses are shameful" A retired senior doctor
from a public hospital, currently working in a private hospital,
India
A survey conducted in 2002 among some 1,000
physicians, nurses and midwives in four Nigerian states, returned
disturbing findings. One in 10 doctors and nurses admitted having
refused to care for an HIV/AIDS patient or had denied HIV/AIDS
patients admission to a hospital. Almost 40% thought a person's
appearance betrayed his or her HIV-positive status, and 20%felt that
people living with HIV/AIDS had behaved immorally and deserved their
fate. One factor fuelling stigma among doctors and nurses is the
fear of exposure to HIV as a result of lack of protective equipment.
Also at play, it appears was the frustration at not having medicines
for treating HIV/AIDS patients, who therefore were seen as 'doomed'
to die.
Lack of confidentiality has been repeatedly
mentioned as a particular problem in health care settings. Many
people living with HIV/AIDS do not get to choose how, when and to
whom to disclose their HIV status. When surveyed recently, 29% of
persons living with HIV/AIDS in India, 38% in Indonesia, and over
40% in Thailand said their HIV-positive status had been revealed to
someone else without their consent. Huge differences in practise
exist between countries and between health care facilities within
countries. In some hospitals, signs have been placed near people
living with HIV/AIDS with words such as 'HIV-positive' and 'AIDS'
written on them. |
