Stigma – What Stigma? A Study of HIV-Related Stigma in Mongu District, Western Province, Zambia

HIV and AIDS-related stigma and discrimination together have long been recognised as one of the main obstacles to the prevention, care and treatment of HIV and AIDS.

Yet little has been done on a large scale to combat this. (International Center for Research on Women, 2005)

Many reasons for this inaction, include the belief of many policymakers that stigma is hard to define and measure, making it difficult to design and implement interventions.

Stigma, it is believed, is too cultural, too context-specific and too sensitive to be addressed meaningfully. Yet according to a recent report by the ICRW (2005), there are in fact ‘…many more similarities than differences across these contexts in the key causes of stigma, the forms stigma takes and the consequences of stigma.

As the wealth of literature suggests, fear of and actual experience with stigma and discrimination generally  reduce an individual’s willingness to practice prevention, seek HIV testing, disclose his/her HIV status to others, ask for (or give) care and support, and begin and adhere to treatment (CSO, 2005).

HIV and AIDS are intimately linked with sex and death.

This research shows that stigma around HIV and AIDS persists so tenaciously because it is so deeply enmeshed with personal and social views, fears, beliefs and taboos around sex and death.

Incomplete and contradictory knowledge of HIV, especially in the more rural parts of Mongu, fuels many of these beliefs and contributes to stigma.

It became clear that moral judgments and attitudes, particularly about sex, shape how communities view people living with HIV.

What was particularly interesting is that fact that people are often unaware of their own stigmatizing actions and equally unaware of contradictions between what they say in theory and how they act in reality.

A summary of findings about the causes of HIV-related S&D in Mongu District is offered in this report.

The summary is based on data collected from the questionnaires, focus group discussions and interviews, as well as observations made throughout the course of the study.

As it can be difficult to apply statistics to qualitative research, this summary provides a simple overview of key points that are dealt with in specific detail throughout the report.

To download report Click here

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