| In Focus |
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 The Price of Not Knowing
In India, ignorance remains a key challenge in the battle against AIDS
In the battle against AIDS, ignorance remains one of the most crucial challenges, an unstuck cog that will not let the wheel turn smoothly no matter how much we push. Globally, more than 40 per cent of respondents do not understand that AIDS is always fatal. A few months ago, a global study by M·A·C AIDS Fund found that, shockingly, AIDS is still underestimated as a global killer. In India, where rates of HIV are rising, 59% believe that HIV is a curable disease. In a collusion of opinion and fact, this first-ever perception audit also found that 86 per cent of adults in the United States, U.K., France, Russia, China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa believe stigma and shame to be a contributor to the spread of HIV. Seventy-six per cent report lack of access to treatment to be a problem as well.
Some astonishing fallacies about access to treatment seem to be in circulation as well. According to the survey, many people mistakenly believe there is currently a cure for HIV. People also believe treatment is more widely available than it is. According to the study, “nearly half of all respondents believe that most people diagnosed with HIV are receiving treatment, when in fact only one in five people who needed treatment received it in 2006.”
The survey also suggests an continuing stigma surrounding HIV. Nearly half of the people surveyed reported being uncomfortable working with those who are HIV positive, while slightly more than half of the respondents did not want to live in the same home as someone infected with HIV.
Despite public health campaigns and sustained efforts by various non-governmental and non-profit organisations working in the sphere, myths about AIDS are both widespread and persistent. Many are ignorant about how the disease spreads or what can be done to prevent it. A major part of the problem is that personal prejudices have kept the stigma and shame about HIV alive. Also, taboos related to sexuality have kept discussion about AIDS out of the places where they most need to be taking place—the home and the classroom. Cultural taboos forbid speaking to children or teenagers about such matters and health becomes a distant lower priority as compared to “morality”. Disturbingly, sex education is still not part of the curriculum in India’s schools. Of course, culture is an important parameter to keep in mind while communicating. But this should not hinder honesty when it comes to important, potentially life-and-death impacting factors. Besides public awareness campaigns, mainstreaming HIV/AIDS awareness into education is imperative because it will enable us to prevent the next generation from facing the scourge that has devastated so many in this one.
Social mores that prevent women from exercising control or agency in their own lives exacerbates the problem. There are approximately 2.5 million cases of HIV in India, with 60% of these occurring amongst the rural population. Married women of childbearing age are considered to be at high risk of HIV because of their husbands’ pre-marital and extra-marital sexual activity but another recent study revealed that levels of HIV testing amongst pregnant women in rural India are very low, and even women who have symptoms of sexually transmitted infections or tuberculosis are not being referred for HIV voluntary counselling or testing.
Formal institutions have been unable or unwilling to address the problem of ignorance with adequate seriousness. All of this points to the growing responsibility that development workers have—to fill this lacunae and educate people in families and communities about AIDS, as often and as comprehensively as possible.
Sources:
1. Global Study at M·A·C AIDS Fund; Retrieved online from http://www.macaidsfund.org/news/pr_rl_global_study.html
2. ‘How the World Thinks About AIDS’, TIME Magazine; Retrieved online from http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1684462,00.html
3. ‘Very low levels of HIV testing amongst women in rural India’, January 28, 2008, Aidsmap News (http://www.aidsmap.com)
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