Stigma and HIV

                The medical sociology concept is STIGMA.  The subject is HIV.   What is a stigma?  According to the class text, Medical Sociology, “The term ‘stigma’ originated with the ancient Greeks, who used it to refer to marks on the body that represented something bad or immoral about the person.”(189)  The book goes on, “there are three main forms of stigma...”  The one we are looking at is number two. “Blemishes of individual character-that is, mental disorder, sexually transmitted disease, alcoholism, and suicidal tendencies.” (189)  The thought is that the only way a person can get HIV is by having promiscuous sex, be an intravenous drug use, or something of that nature.  Therefore the person must be an immoral person.   

                Although it is known that HIV is not spread by touching, people tend to stay away from those they know are HIV positive.  People who have HIV are treated by society as if they are the plague.  Stay away at all costs.  Even though HIV people can live normal lives, they take the chance of being fired from a job; lose friends and family members, the list goes on, once their condition is known by the public.  For a long time this is how HIV people were thought about, and in some conditions, they still are.   Knowledge about the disease has brought the ways people think of HIV positive people a little differently.  HIV people aren't always drug users, or wanting to have sex with anyone who will have sex with them.  Now they are babies who got it because their mother was the victim of a sexual assault and didn't believe in having an abortion.  Or it’s the soldier who had to have a blood transfusion after he got injured fighting for our country.  There are a million different reasons why people have HIV today.  As a society, we have learned that whether you have HIV because you are a good or bad person, you are still a person, and you deserve the best chance at life.

Is the stigmata about HIV still there?  Yes, and it probably will always be there in some way.   The only way we can change this problem is by changing how we think about it.  Would you treat your mom, dad, sister, brother any different if they went to the doctor and found out they had HIV?  Then why would you treat a complete stranger any different? 

References:
Class Textbook: Cockerham, William C., University of Alabama at Birmingham.Medical Sociology. 12th Ed.

YouTube.com, Life long battle: Teens living with HIV/AIDS.  Retrieved May 9, 2013.