Abstract Throughout history, many diseases have carried considerable stigma, including leprosy tuberculosis, cancer, mental illness and many STDs. Now HIV/AIDS is the topmost in the list of diseases that leads to devastating patient stigmatization. Despite international efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS, stigma and discrimination remain among the most poorly understood aspects of the epidemic. In the face of numerous intervention strategies, HIV/AIDS continues to spread and to pose a threat to the socio-economic transformation of South Africa. The broad objective of this study was to investigate how the stigmatisation of HIV-Positive women is made manifest and look at how successful the National Association of people living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA) in South Africa has been in achieving their objectives and goals of changing the perceptions people have about HIV/AIDS and creating awareness about the debilitating effect stigmatisation has in the society, especially when it viciously targets HIV-positive women. A case study approach was used to examine the experiences of HIV/AIDS infected/affected women and NAPWA administrators. Methods used in the collection of data were self-administered questionnaires, participant observation and archival evidence in the form of documents. Through these methods, the study investigated ways in which the stigmatisation of HIV-positive women was made manifest, the role of NAPWA in fighting HIV/AIDS stigmatisation, how successful NAPWA has been in the fight against the stigmatisation of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa, challenges faced by NAPWA in the fight against HIV stigmatisation and discrimination, weaknesses of NAPWA and what impact all these have in the spread of HIV/AIDS. The research results show that HIV-positive women suffer stigmatisation and that; organisations of people living with HIV/AIDS (e.g. NAPWA-SA) play a major role in eradicating the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS. It also suggests that APWAs in effect help to reduce the spread of the disease and prolong the life span of those infected by it. All this not withstanding, the study also discovered that APWAs like NAPWA-SA need the support of government and stakeholders in South Africa to fully implement their strategies and programmes geared towards reducing stigma and the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Introdução: O Brasil é o segundo país no mundo em número de casos novos de hanseníase, doença infecciosa, com alto poder incapacitante e historicamente ligada preconceito, estigma e castigo e à exclusão social pela política sanitária de contenção da doença até meados do século passado. Avanços tecnológicos e mudanças na política de controle da doença conduziram a possibilidade de tratamento ambulatorial, alta por cura e experiências de participação em grupos de apoio, entretanto, questiona-se como pacientes que receberam alta por cura percebem, o processo de adoecimento, atribuem significado à cura e vivenciam marcas do estigma e do preconceito relacionado à doença. Objetivos: Identificar relações que mulheres que tiveram hanseníase estabelecem entre essa enfermidade e suas implicações para a vida cotidiana de cada uma; identificar significados atribuídos, por mulheres que tiveram hanseníase, ao processo de adoecimento; identificar tipos de relações das mulheres com a participação em um grupo de apoio; desvelar sentidos atribuídos pelas mulheres à experiência da cura da hanseníase e às consequentes lesões sociais. Metodologia: Foram realizadas entrevistas com quinze mulheres, ex-pacientes e membros do Grupo de Apoio a Mulheres Atingidas pela Hanseníase- GAMAH que desenvolve atividades educativas de autocuidados, profissionalização e geração de renda. Resultados: Os relatos das mulheres estão relacionados à hanseníase no cotidiano, com as narrativas sobre a complexidade do diagnóstico, apresentando a dor como marca mais significativa. Outra categoria resgata o retardo no diagnóstico e se explica por ser dado por profissionais não especialistas, pelo desconhecimento dos sintomas da doença pelas mulheres, ou ainda pela negação de estar doente. O apoio social encontrado no GAMAH configura outro agrupamento de ideias, mostrando o apoio na forma de assistencialismo, a forma que conheceu o GAMAH, e o mesmo como espaço de compartilhamento de vivências. Outro grupo de respostas se refere às sequelas permanentes, como complicações depois da hanseníase, sobre o tratamento e o cotidiano, e também sobre os cuidados com o corpo. E o ultimo agrupamento de respostas, refere-se aos processos de alta e os significados da cura da hanseníase, a crença na cura em contraponto com a descrença na cura, com uso de alguns indicadores para justificar as respostas, e ainda relatos de estigmas e preconceitos como representação da lesão social. Considerações Finais Diante do significado da vivência das mulheres com a hanseníase e dos desafios das mesmas na vida cotidiana para superar o que se chamou de lesões sociais, desvelou-se a questão que parece relacionada não somente a insuficiente implementação de políticas públicas, mas igualmente a problemas de acolhimento para a multiplicidade de cuidados que a hanseníase exige em termos clínicos e sociais, com ações que vão além da perspectiva de contenção da doença. / Brazil is the second country in the world in terms of number of new cases of leprosy, an infectious disease, with high incapacitating power and historically linked to prejudice, stigma and punishment, and to social exclusion by the health politics to contain the disease until the middle of the last century. Technological advances and changes in the control politics of the disease have led to the possibility of outpatient treatment, high cure and experiences of participation in support groups, however, it is questioned how patients who were discharged by cure perceive, the process of illness, give meaning To cure and experience marks of stigma and prejudice related to the disease. To identify relationships that women who had leprosy establish between this disease and its implications for the daily life of each one; To identify meanings attributed, by women who had leprosy, to the process of illness; Identify types of women\'s relationships with participation in a support group; Reveal the senses attributed by women to the experience of the cure of leprosy and the consequent social injuries. Interviews were conducted with fifteen women, former patients and members of the Support Group for Women Affected by Leprosy - GAMAH - who develop educational activities of self-care, professionalization and income generation. The reports of women are related to leprosy in daily life, with narratives about the complexity of the diagnosis, presenting pain as the most significant brand. Another category rescues the delay in diagnosis and is explained by being given by non-specialists, by the lack of knowledge of the symptoms of the disease by women, or by the denial of being sick. The social support found in GAMAH sets up another grouping of ideas, showing the support in the form of assistance, the form that knew the GAMAH, and the same as space of sharing of experiences. Another group of responses portrays permanent sequelae, such as complications after leprosy, treatment and daily life, and body care. And the last grouping of responses refers to discharge processes and the meanings of the cure of leprosy, belief in cure versus disbelief in cure, use of some indicators to justify responses, and reports of stigma and Prejudices as a representation of the social injury. In view of the significance of women living with leprosy and their daily challenges in overcoming what has been called social injury, the issue that seems to be related not only to the insufficient implementation of public policies, but also to the Problems of reception for the multiplicity of care that leprosy requires in clinical and social terms, with actions that go beyond the perspective of containment of the disease.

O objetivo deste estudo foi compreender o modo como ocorre a revelação (ou não) da causa morte dos pais do ponto de vista dos jovens órfãos por aids. Descreveu-se a trajetória de vida de jovens órfãos soronegativos e os sentidos da orfandade para esses jovens. O processo de revelação é emblemático do cenário compartilhado pelas pessoas afetadas pela epidemia da aids também no contexto brasileiro, profundamente marcado pelos estigmas associados à aids. A revelação expressa uma mediação intersubjetiva central ao contexto da aids, mais raro na experiência de outros agravos de saúde. Quando o tema da revelação é abordado na literatura internacional, mais frequentemente trata do modo como profissionais de saúde devem revelar a soropositividade, do modo como pessoas vivendo com aids contam o seu diagnóstico para parceiros sexuais, filhos e profissionais de saúde e, em menor frequência, como órfãos revelam a própria sorologia ou a dos pais. O estudo de desenho qualitativo analisou entrevistas realizadas com treze jovens de ambos os sexos que, no momento da entrevista, estavam majoritariamente no final da adolescência. As entrevistas abordaram sua estrutura familiar e doméstica, suas lembranças e a experiência da perda dos pais e de orfandade. Exploramos na entrevista cenas de revelação da causa morte dos pais, especialmente como lidavam, como comunicavam, ou não, sobre a causa morte por aids para outras pessoas, nomeada como revelação secundária. Nenhum dos entrevistados se identificou centralmente como órfão noção que é associada ao abandono. A trajetória de vida dos participantes indica que não estavam vivendo em condições de grande vulnerabilidade socioeconômica, quase todos trabalhavam e/ou estudavam e ninguém referiu ter sofrido discriminação na escola ou no trabalho, apesar de temerem a estigmatização e a discriminação que impede metade deles de revelar sua experiência pessoal com a aids. Observou-se que como em outros países, pais e/ou cuidadores tiveram dificuldades com a revelação do diagnóstico a seus filhos e que metade dos jovens não revelou a causa de morte dos pais por medo do estigma. A não revelação gerou o gerenciamento de um segredo de família e o desafio de dar conta de múltiplas revelações do comportamento dos pais e de outros segredos que o medo da discriminação produz / The purpose of this study was to comprehend the emotional and interpersonal effects of parents death by AIDS from seronegative young orphans point of view. Lifes trajectory of seronegative young orphans has been described, the meaning of orphanhood, their experience with AIDS diagnostic disclosure from their father, mother, or both. The disclosure process is emblematic of the shared scenario of people affected by AIDS, also in the Brazilian context marked by stigmas associated to AIDS. Disclosure expresses an intersubjective central mediation to AIDS experience, rarer in other health problems. In the literature, when the issue of disclosure is approached, it is usually about how health professionals must disclose to patients their seropositive condition, and the way people living with AIDS talk about their diagnostic to sexual partners, their children and to health professionals, rarely how orphans disclose your own, or of your parents, seropositive condition. This qualitative study interviewed a group of thirteen youth, male or female, that in the moment of interview were ending adolescence. The interview covered their familiar and domestic structure, their memories and experience of parents illness, death and orphanhood. In addition, parents death disclosure scenes were explored in the interviews, focusing on how to deal with those, how to disclose, or not, about their parents causa mortis to other people, named as secondary disclosure. Neither of interviewees has identified himself/herself as an orphan - in their perspective associated to neglect. They are not living under strong social-economic vulnerability condition. Almost all interviewees were working or studying, and anybody has reported discrimination at school or at work, although they were afraid about stigmatization and discrimination that prevented, half of them, to disclose their AIDS personal experience. Also, like in other countries, parents or caregivers had difficulties to disclosure the AIDS diagnostic to their sons and half of cohort did not disclose fearing stigma. The decision of non-disclosure produced constant management of a family secret and lead to the challenge in dealing with multiple disclosures about parents behavior and other secrets that the discrimination fear produces

This dissertation created a model to explore the effect of dominant group status on stigmatization of mental illness and on moral relativism and the interactive effect of dominant group status on stigmatization of mental illness through moral relativism. The model was conceptualized according to social dominance theory. Latent variables were created to measure moral relativism and stigmatization of mental illness. The latent measures were conceptualized according to current theories in the fields of moral relativism and stigmatization. During statistical analyses the latent measure for moral relativism was found to be unreliable. The study then became confirmatory-exploratory in nature by first comparing the fit indices of three alternate models with single-measure latent variables. The model that best fit the data was then used to conclude the exploratory research on the effect of group status on moral relativism and stigmatization of mental illness. The model was not supported by the data based on fit index and standardized residual scores.

Introdução: O Brasil é o segundo país no mundo em número de casos novos de hanseníase, doença infecciosa, com alto poder incapacitante e historicamente ligada preconceito, estigma e castigo e à exclusão social pela política sanitária de contenção da doença até meados do século passado. Avanços tecnológicos e mudanças na política de controle da doença conduziram a possibilidade de tratamento ambulatorial, alta por cura e experiências de participação em grupos de apoio, entretanto, questiona-se como pacientes que receberam alta por cura percebem, o processo de adoecimento, atribuem significado à cura e vivenciam marcas do estigma e do preconceito relacionado à doença. Objetivos: Identificar relações que mulheres que tiveram hanseníase estabelecem entre essa enfermidade e suas implicações para a vida cotidiana de cada uma; identificar significados atribuídos, por mulheres que tiveram hanseníase, ao processo de adoecimento; identificar tipos de relações das mulheres com a participação em um grupo de apoio; desvelar sentidos atribuídos pelas mulheres à experiência da cura da hanseníase e às consequentes lesões sociais. Metodologia: Foram realizadas entrevistas com quinze mulheres, ex-pacientes e membros do Grupo de Apoio a Mulheres Atingidas pela Hanseníase- GAMAH que desenvolve atividades educativas de autocuidados, profissionalização e geração de renda. Resultados: Os relatos das mulheres estão relacionados à hanseníase no cotidiano, com as narrativas sobre a complexidade do diagnóstico, apresentando a dor como marca mais significativa. Outra categoria resgata o retardo no diagnóstico e se explica por ser dado por profissionais não especialistas, pelo desconhecimento dos sintomas da doença pelas mulheres, ou ainda pela negação de estar doente. O apoio social encontrado no GAMAH configura outro agrupamento de ideias, mostrando o apoio na forma de assistencialismo, a forma que conheceu o GAMAH, e o mesmo como espaço de compartilhamento de vivências. Outro grupo de respostas se refere às sequelas permanentes, como complicações depois da hanseníase, sobre o tratamento e o cotidiano, e também sobre os cuidados com o corpo. E o ultimo agrupamento de respostas, refere-se aos processos de alta e os significados da cura da hanseníase, a crença na cura em contraponto com a descrença na cura, com uso de alguns indicadores para justificar as respostas, e ainda relatos de estigmas e preconceitos como representação da lesão social. Considerações Finais Diante do significado da vivência das mulheres com a hanseníase e dos desafios das mesmas na vida cotidiana para superar o que se chamou de lesões sociais, desvelou-se a questão que parece relacionada não somente a insuficiente implementação de políticas públicas, mas igualmente a problemas de acolhimento para a multiplicidade de cuidados que a hanseníase exige em termos clínicos e sociais, com ações que vão além da perspectiva de contenção da doença. / Brazil is the second country in the world in terms of number of new cases of leprosy, an infectious disease, with high incapacitating power and historically linked to prejudice, stigma and punishment, and to social exclusion by the health politics to contain the disease until the middle of the last century. Technological advances and changes in the control politics of the disease have led to the possibility of outpatient treatment, high cure and experiences of participation in support groups, however, it is questioned how patients who were discharged by cure perceive, the process of illness, give meaning To cure and experience marks of stigma and prejudice related to the disease. To identify relationships that women who had leprosy establish between this disease and its implications for the daily life of each one; To identify meanings attributed, by women who had leprosy, to the process of illness; Identify types of women\'s relationships with participation in a support group; Reveal the senses attributed by women to the experience of the cure of leprosy and the consequent social injuries. Interviews were conducted with fifteen women, former patients and members of the Support Group for Women Affected by Leprosy - GAMAH - who develop educational activities of self-care, professionalization and income generation. The reports of women are related to leprosy in daily life, with narratives about the complexity of the diagnosis, presenting pain as the most significant brand. Another category rescues the delay in diagnosis and is explained by being given by non-specialists, by the lack of knowledge of the symptoms of the disease by women, or by the denial of being sick. The social support found in GAMAH sets up another grouping of ideas, showing the support in the form of assistance, the form that knew the GAMAH, and the same as space of sharing of experiences. Another group of responses portrays permanent sequelae, such as complications after leprosy, treatment and daily life, and body care. And the last grouping of responses refers to discharge processes and the meanings of the cure of leprosy, belief in cure versus disbelief in cure, use of some indicators to justify responses, and reports of stigma and Prejudices as a representation of the social injury. In view of the significance of women living with leprosy and their daily challenges in overcoming what has been called social injury, the issue that seems to be related not only to the insufficient implementation of public policies, but also to the Problems of reception for the multiplicity of care that leprosy requires in clinical and social terms, with actions that go beyond the perspective of containment of the disease.

O objetivo deste estudo foi compreender o modo como ocorre a revelação (ou não) da causa morte dos pais do ponto de vista dos jovens órfãos por aids. Descreveu-se a trajetória de vida de jovens órfãos soronegativos e os sentidos da orfandade para esses jovens. O processo de revelação é emblemático do cenário compartilhado pelas pessoas afetadas pela epidemia da aids também no contexto brasileiro, profundamente marcado pelos estigmas associados à aids. A revelação expressa uma mediação intersubjetiva central ao contexto da aids, mais raro na experiência de outros agravos de saúde. Quando o tema da revelação é abordado na literatura internacional, mais frequentemente trata do modo como profissionais de saúde devem revelar a soropositividade, do modo como pessoas vivendo com aids contam o seu diagnóstico para parceiros sexuais, filhos e profissionais de saúde e, em menor frequência, como órfãos revelam a própria sorologia ou a dos pais. O estudo de desenho qualitativo analisou entrevistas realizadas com treze jovens de ambos os sexos que, no momento da entrevista, estavam majoritariamente no final da adolescência. As entrevistas abordaram sua estrutura familiar e doméstica, suas lembranças e a experiência da perda dos pais e de orfandade. Exploramos na entrevista cenas de revelação da causa morte dos pais, especialmente como lidavam, como comunicavam, ou não, sobre a causa morte por aids para outras pessoas, nomeada como revelação secundária. Nenhum dos entrevistados se identificou centralmente como órfão noção que é associada ao abandono. A trajetória de vida dos participantes indica que não estavam vivendo em condições de grande vulnerabilidade socioeconômica, quase todos trabalhavam e/ou estudavam e ninguém referiu ter sofrido discriminação na escola ou no trabalho, apesar de temerem a estigmatização e a discriminação que impede metade deles de revelar sua experiência pessoal com a aids. Observou-se que como em outros países, pais e/ou cuidadores tiveram dificuldades com a revelação do diagnóstico a seus filhos e que metade dos jovens não revelou a causa de morte dos pais por medo do estigma. A não revelação gerou o gerenciamento de um segredo de família e o desafio de dar conta de múltiplas revelações do comportamento dos pais e de outros segredos que o medo da discriminação produz / The purpose of this study was to comprehend the emotional and interpersonal effects of parents death by AIDS from seronegative young orphans point of view. Lifes trajectory of seronegative young orphans has been described, the meaning of orphanhood, their experience with AIDS diagnostic disclosure from their father, mother, or both. The disclosure process is emblematic of the shared scenario of people affected by AIDS, also in the Brazilian context marked by stigmas associated to AIDS. Disclosure expresses an intersubjective central mediation to AIDS experience, rarer in other health problems. In the literature, when the issue of disclosure is approached, it is usually about how health professionals must disclose to patients their seropositive condition, and the way people living with AIDS talk about their diagnostic to sexual partners, their children and to health professionals, rarely how orphans disclose your own, or of your parents, seropositive condition. This qualitative study interviewed a group of thirteen youth, male or female, that in the moment of interview were ending adolescence. The interview covered their familiar and domestic structure, their memories and experience of parents illness, death and orphanhood. In addition, parents death disclosure scenes were explored in the interviews, focusing on how to deal with those, how to disclose, or not, about their parents causa mortis to other people, named as secondary disclosure. Neither of interviewees has identified himself/herself as an orphan - in their perspective associated to neglect. They are not living under strong social-economic vulnerability condition. Almost all interviewees were working or studying, and anybody has reported discrimination at school or at work, although they were afraid about stigmatization and discrimination that prevented, half of them, to disclose their AIDS personal experience. Also, like in other countries, parents or caregivers had difficulties to disclosure the AIDS diagnostic to their sons and half of cohort did not disclose fearing stigma. The decision of non-disclosure produced constant management of a family secret and lead to the challenge in dealing with multiple disclosures about parents behavior and other secrets that the discrimination fear produces

This study aims to examine how the work of NGOs can be beneficial for teenage mothers’ in the Philippines. We wanted to study why they sought support of an NGO and how their lives were impacted after they made contact with an NGO. Teenage pregnancy rates have been rising in the Philippines and mostly affect the young mothers negatively i.e. they often have to quit school and be financially dependent on their parents. They are a stigmatized group and to understand their situation you have to comprehend how the context in the Philippines comes to affect them.  The study was conducted using a qualitative inductive method. By using semi-structured interviews, we have collected our material by interviewing eight young mothers who were in contact with two different organizations.  The result of the study shows that the work of NGOs has a significant influence in improving the young mothers’ lives both mentally and physically. When becoming pregnant they get rejected by their social circle and are left on their own because they are viewed as a disgrace. To analyze our result, we have used stigmatization and empowerment as theoretical framework. The study has shown that the environment is crucial for the outcome of their lives and that the organizations’ play an important role in their lives to empower them to take action and start something new.

This dissertation investigates the institutional practice of screening newly-arrived international students for tuberculosis on U.S. college and university campuses from the 1980s through 2015. It is a critical analysis of this public health measure from the point of view of U.S.-American cultural studies and includes a sample of 21 interviews with international students who underwent this compulsory, on-campus, TB screening procedure. As such, this dissertation contributes to social scientific and cultural studies of racialized practices and discourses in U.S. public health as well as to scholarly literature on the experience of international students in the U.S. In the mid-to-late 1980s, U.S. public health authorities declared a "war on TB" in response to rising TB incidence in the country. The intensified measures of TB control conceptualized the category of the "foreign-born" as invariably "high-risk:" Foreign nationals in the U.S. were to be skin tested for latent TB infection and preventively treated by isoniazid (INH) - even as the U.S. medical community was aware that INH potentially had toxic side effects and that the TB skin test as a diagnostic tool for latent TB was imprecise. The liabilities of the skin test are especially marked in persons inoculated against tuberculosis by the BCG vaccine because the skin test does not distinguish between residues of BCG and actual human TB infection. Yet, despite the fact that, according to the World Health Organization, around 90 per cent of the world population is BCG-vaccinated, the U.S. public health authorities opted to deploy the TB skin test. I argue that, given the difficulties of TB skin test interpretation in BCG-vaccinated individuals, the system of TB skin testing the foreign-born erased the medical history of TB prophylaxis of foreign nationals vaccinated for TB even as the CDC publications and peer-reviewed literature clearly demonstrate that U.S. medical community was aware of the impact of TB prophylaxis on the TB skin test. Citing peer-reviewed articles, CDC and campus orientation documents, this dissertation demonstrates that the erasures amounted to declaring up to fifty per cent of TB skin tested foreign nationals as latent TB positive, thus misdiagnosing latent TB infection on the scale of 76 to 90 per cent. By giving a voice to international students who were subjected to the procedure, this dissertation considers the larger cultural imperatives of such epidemiology. Written by an international student who completed 9-month INH treatment for a non-existent diagnosis and contracted neurological side effects, this dissertation is also a meditation on (self-)forgiveness.

<p>The aim with this study was to illustrate communicative meetings between people that are visiting and working in two different associations for people with intellectual disabilities. The method we used was interviews. To find out the meaning of the associations for the members creating of identity, participation and self esteem we asked them if they felt stigmatized and if they thought that the associations reduced that feeling and how the pedagogy cooperation between them selves and the coaches were working. The results of the study showed that the members of the association experienced that it had a positive influence according to their creating of identity, participation and self esteem. The members felt that coaching and the pedagogy cooperation had both positive and negative aspects but mostly it worked well.</p>

The aim with this study was to illustrate communicative meetings between people that are visiting and working in two different associations for people with intellectual disabilities. The method we used was interviews. To find out the meaning of the associations for the members creating of identity, participation and self esteem we asked them if they felt stigmatized and if they thought that the associations reduced that feeling and how the pedagogy cooperation between them selves and the coaches were working. The results of the study showed that the members of the association experienced that it had a positive influence according to their creating of identity, participation and self esteem. The members felt that coaching and the pedagogy cooperation had both positive and negative aspects but mostly it worked well.