Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Paarl, in the Western Cape, has been identified as one of the 15 national sites where antiretroviral treatment (ARVs) would be made available to people living with HIV/AIDS. Paarl Hospice initiated a support group for people to deal with this disease in 2003. Since February 2004 Paarl Hospice has been recruiting people from the surrounding informal settlements for ARVs. By means of participant observation I explored how HIV/AIDS-related disclosure experiences unfolded in places, spaces and events associated with the support group in the context of factors enabling and preventing people from accessing Hospice House. I did this by considering the insights drawn from an anthropological approach. I found the meanings of disclosure in the majority of studies to be limited and restricted. Available studies approached disclosure in a top-down fashion by regarding the definition of disclosure as the announcement of HIV-positivity at the time of diagnosis only. These studies have not considered social differences relating to disclosure neither did they focus on the actual process of disclosure. By means of a constructivist approach to grounded theory I seek to broaden the definition of disclosure to account for the range of ways in which disclosure practices take place. I found that disclosure could not be separated from the situational context in which it occurs and that it can only be understood in relation to the circumstances and relationships in which it takes place. In this study, disclosure was an ongoing process, situated somewhere between active, public announcement of an HIV-status and complete secrecy and somewhere between voluntary and involuntary revealing of the disease. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Paarl in die Wes-Kaap is geïdentifiseer as een van die 15 nasionale areas waar antiretrovirale medikasie beskikbaar gestel sou word aan mense wat leef met MIV/VIGS. Paarl Hospice het gedurende 2003 ʼn ondersteuningsgroep geїnisieer om aan MIV/VIGS aandag te gee. Sedert Februarie 2004 is Paarl Hospice in die proses om mense te werf uit die omliggende informele behuisingsgebiede vir antiretrovirale behandeling. Met behulp van antropologiese insigte en deelnemende waarneming kon ek nagaan hoe verskillende maniere van MIV/VIGS-verwante bekendmaking ontvou in plekke, ruimtes en gebeurtenisse wat verband hou met die ondersteuningsgroep. MIV/VIGSverwante bekendmaking is ondersoek te midde van inhiberende en fasiliterende faktore wat mense verhoed of aanhelp om Paarl Hospice te besoek. Ek het bevind dat die definisie van bekendmaking in die meeste navorsing gebrekkig is. Beskikbare navorsing het bekendmaking volgens ‘n bo-na-onder-wyse benader as die openbare bekendmaking van ‘n MIV-status na afloop van diagnose alleenlik. Met behulp van ‘n konstruktiewe benadering van die begronde teorie het ek gepoog om die definisie van bekendmaking uit te bou om sodoende die verskeidenheid maniere waarop bekendmaking plaasvind te akkommodeer. Ek het vasgestel dat bekendmaking onlosmaakbaar deel is van die situasionele konteks waarin dit plaasvind en dat dit slegs begryp kan word in verband tot die verhoudings en omstandighede waarin dit plaasvind. In hierdie studie was bekendmaking ʼn voortdurende proses, gesitueer tussen aktiewe openbare bekendmaking en volledige geheimhouding van ʼn MIVstatus, asook tussen volkome vrywillige en onvrywillige bekendmaking van ʼn MIVstatus.

This thesis explores the history of AIDS activism 'from both sides of the bed', by doctors and gay patients, in the 1980s and early 1990s. Such AIDS activism was formed in opposition to dominant racist and homophobic framings of the epidemic and the AIDS-related discrimination that these representations caused. Moreover, links between both groups of AIDS activists have their origins in this period. This history has emerged through oral interviews conducted with AIDS activists and an analysis of archival material held at the South African History Archive and the Centre for Health Policy at the University of the Witwatersrand. Evidence reveals that AIDS activism was politically overshadowed in the 1980s by the overwhelming need to respond to apartheid. Although the Gay Association of South Africa (GASA) resisted AIDS-related homophobia, it was politically conservative, which later led to its demise, and then the creation of new, more militant anti-apartheid gay AIDS activism. By contrast, the anti-apartheid doctor organisations such as the National Medical and Dental Association (NAMDA) and the National Progressive Primary Health Care Network (PPHC) were militantly anti-apartheid, but did not seriously address AIDS in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, in the new transitional context, AIDS activists framed the epidemic in terms of human rights to combat AIDS-related discrimination in AIDS policy. Simultaneously, doctor activists in NAMDA and PPHC mobilised around AIDS in the early 1990s, but both organisations disbanded after 1994. Meanwhile, gay AIDS activists remained prominent in AIDS activism, as some who were living with HIV adopted the strategy of openness about their HIV status. On the other hand, AIDS-related stigma remained widespread in the transition era with important implications for post-apartheid AIDS activism and policy-making. Ultimately, this history has significantly shaped post-apartheid, rights-based AIDS activism and its recent disputes with the government over AIDS policy. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

Background and purpose. The purpose of the study was to determine the costs incurred on the average length of stay (ALOS) on patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) related illnesses admitted in hospital and whether there are any other significant costs involved. Method. A quantitative approach was used to collect data; analysed; interpretation and report writing. Purposive sampling and data collection was done using data collection sheet. This was a retrospective cost analysis data from in-patients records (record review) of ages from 15 years to 49 years both gender. Data analysis and presentation of information was presented by the use of tables; different types of graphs and the interpretation thereof. Results. The study found that males (63%) with HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) related illnesses had longer average length of stay in a hospital compared to females. However, females illustrated higher in-patient costs but majority of patients had costs of between R0–R17 500. Patients with longer hospital stay (>3 days of hospitalisation) had higher in-patient costs. Conclusion. The findings also showed that in-patient care costs were directly proportional to length of stay with higher costs for HIV and AIDS patient management care. Our findings are consistent with other studies regarding higher economic implications of care for HIV infected persons being almost as twice as people who are HIV negative due to longer periods of hospitalisation. / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)