Latest update January 20th, 2025 4:00 AM
Low level of HIV discrimination among health care workers – survey
A Client Satisfaction Survey has dispelled reports that patients infected by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
NAPS Programme Manager, Dr Shanti Singh.
are highly discriminated against by health care workers. This disclosure was made by Programme Manager of the National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS), Dr. Shanti Singh.
Dr. Singh, during an interview with this publication recently, said that “we have gotten reports from all over, even the workplace, about discrimination, and in relation to those in the health care system, we have dealt with them internally.”
However, these numerous reports, she noted, have not been substantiated by the Client Satisfaction Survey which was conducted at HIV treatment sites across the country. Dr. Singh even pointed out that “over the last year or two I think I have gotten one or two (genuine) reports.”
She disclosed that based on the survey which entailed the distribution of questionnaires among HIV infected persons who access treatment services, the discrimination level is not very high. “We asked patients about how they perceive stigma and discrimination coming from health care workers and most patients do not believe they are discriminated against,” disclosed Dr. Singh.
She, however, acknowledged that there is likely to be some persons who might question the authenticity of such a survey since it is believed that patients would be unwilling to share their honest opinions for fear of being victimised. But according to Dr. Singh, while some limitations were expected, the survey was in fact an anonymous one which was not designed to identify individual patients.
Despite the laudable results of the survey, the NAPS Manager pointed out that “we will continue to work with health care workers to ensure that we provide services in a sort of non-judgemental and non-discriminatory manner.”
Stigma and discrimination in the health care system, she speculated, could in fact be a situation that is perceived rather than experienced. In offering an explanation to this belief, she disclosed that “if you come into clinic today your perception is that stigma and discrimination from health workers is very high but if you spend two months in the clinic and ask that question, you will find that it comes down significantly…So I think in a lot of cases there might be some hesitancy coming into the clinic because that perception is already on their minds; once you get into the clinic and you settle you realise this is not necessarily so…it begins to wear (away).”
Dr. Singh, during an interview with this publication earlier this year, had disclosed that stigma and discrimination is seen as one of the major challenges faced by the Ministry’s HIV-fighting arm.
She pointed out even then that the whole concept of treatment and prevention is one that speaks to having persons who are HIV positive being able to access treatment to lower or suppress their viral-load to a point where HIV becomes almost non-transmissible.
As such the national fight against the disease, she said, is likely to be severely hampered since the continuance of stigma and discrimination could lend to infected persons being unwilling to access treatment programmes.
The extent of the situation is that persons who may suspect they are HIV positive may be unwilling to get tested while those who would have tested positive would be hesitant to get treatment because of the perceived high level of stigma and discrimination, Dr. Singh added.
Moreover, she noted that the tactic being employed to address this situation is strengthened education programmes throughout the society even at the level of the workplace, among key target populations and even among health care workers.
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