Stigma and discrimination of people with HIV/AIDS infection

María del Carmen MC Franco Suárez, Universidad de La Habana
Sonia Catasús Cervera, Universidad de La Habana

In April 2007, it was carried out in Cuba the second round of the National Survey to Persons living with HIV/AIDS Infection. This survey was sponsored by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and the Malaria, and was leaded and executed in Cuba by the Center for Prevention of STI/HIV/AIDS, and the Center for Population and Development Studies. It is a national representative survey, which was applied, face to face, to 3333 contacted personas which HIV/AIDS, men and women aged 12 and above. Stigma and discrimination associated with HIV-AIDS Infection was investigated in the survey, throughout a set of questions covering topics such as: patients’ working place relationships; patients’ interaction with health sector personnel; integration in mutual-aids groups, knowledge and training about their working rights, and others. Time spent from the diagnosis, and the activity status at that time, and current, were also investigated. Statistical analysis of those issues, allows us to conclude that, in spite of large achievements in population training and sensitization about HIV-AIDS Infection, there persists many behaviors among general population that affect societal integration of people with VIH-AIDS Infection, and might limited the scope of any Project designed for their wellbeing.The Paper emphasized the need and importance of Project such as the one leaded by the Global Fund