Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has become one of the world's most serious health and development challenges. It is important for African American female students who attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), to engage in routine HIV testing and know their HIV status based on the high prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS among African American women and the risk of engaging in risky sexual behavior in a college. This qualitative study was developed to help gain a better understanding of how African American female students who attend HBCUs make the decision to engage in HIV testing and their attitudes toward HIV testing. Face-to-face individual interviews were conducted to collect data from African American female students who attend a HBCU. By using the theory of reasoned action and planned behavior (TRA/TPB), behaviors, intentions, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control were explored by addressing questions and topics related to attitudes and decision making toward HIV testing. The women interviewed in this study had accepting and positive attitudes toward HIV testing. Perceived risk level was the leading a factor in making the decision to be tested for HIV among participating women. Understanding how these factors affect communities will help public health professionals, educators, community leaders, university personnel, policy makers, community organizations, and researchers develop the most effective strategies for the development and delivery of HIV testing messages that target African American female students who attend HBCUs.

Appendix B (leaves 217-218), Appendix M (leaves 239-247) and Appendix O (leaves 253-259) in English and Amharic / The purpose of this research was to develop HIV testing Health Belief Scale (HTBS) that contains the constructs of Health Belief Model (HBM), and also to analyse HIV testing intention and behaviour among university students. The mixed method approach was used in phases. First, Literature review and in-depth interviews were conducted to develop item pool for HTBS, which was followed by content validity assessment by experts. In the second phase, a pilot survey was conducted on randomly selected 318 university students to refine the HTBS using item analysis and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Lastly, cross-sectional survey was conducted on representative sample of 612 students in order to further refine the HTBS using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and also analyse predictors of HIV testing intention and behaviour. A total of 61 items was written for the HTBS and 23 of these were generated from the in-depth interviews. Content validity assessment by three experts indicated that the average content validity index (CVI) for the 61 items was 91.2% which was more than the recommended cut off point of 90%. The HTBS, after experts review, contained 64 items. EFA indicated that a five factor model which was roughly consistent with HBM was identified and 44 items were retained based on factor loading and reliability analysis. The Cronbach’s alpha for all the six constructs of HBM and HIV testing intention in the HTBS were >0,70. (susceptibility, benefit, self-efficacy and HIV testing intention) fitted the sample data based on chi-square test. However, all the seven constructs demonstrated RMSEA value of less than 0.08 and GFI value of >0.90 indicating acceptable fit. The final HTBS was reduced to 39 items based on factor loading and reliability assessment. All the constructs demonstrated a Cronbach’s alpha value >0.70 except for perceived susceptibility and cues to action. Analysis of multiple linear regression indicated that class year, perceived benefit, perceived self-efficacy and cues to action were significant predictors of HIV testing intention. However, only marital status and cues to action were significant predictors of recent history of HIV testing through analysis of binary logistic regression. / Health Studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

"The insurance industry was among the first to understand clearly the serious nature of the epidemic, as the HIV/AIDS epidemic disintegrates and destabilizes slowly the traditional extended African family system. The extended family, which traditionally constitutes a social safety net in African communities, is not able to cope with the sudden burden of HIV/AIDS orphans, since the age group 20-44 is the most hit by the epidemic. A study commissioned by the Henry Kaiser Family Foundation showed that, by the year 2005, HIV/AIDS is expected to make around one million children under the age of 15 orphans in South Africa. Besides, stigma and secrecy around the disease expose HIV/AIDS orphans to discrimination in their community and even in their extended family. As a result, a large number of HIV/AIDS orphans are abandoned and forced to seek help in the streets, begging for money, a situation that exposes them to abuse and criminality. Since 1988, most insurance companies in South Africa have had a policy of compulsory HIV testing which excludes HIV positive candidates from their scheme. The reason put forward is that they represent an 'unacceptable risk'. According to the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA), this is a widespread problem in South Africa. The impact of discrimination in getting life insurance is catastrophic on the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS and their families. As was noted by the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of Zurich Insurance Company v Ontario, there is a fundamental tension between human rights law and insurance practice. Insurance practices, particularly, impedes on equality and privacy rights of HIV positive persons. ... Therefore, at the root of the debate on HIV/AIDS and insurance is the question on how to strike a balance between the need to ensure that insurance companies extend their coverage without being financially endangered and the human and constitutional rights of HIV positive persons. ... The study is divided into five chapters. Chapter one is the introductory chapter. Chapter two examines the principles of insurance as well as the characteristics of HIV/AIDS. It aims at understanding the arguments in favour of HIV testing and exclusion of persons living with HIV/AIDS from life insurance schemes. Chapter three analyses the problem from the perspective of persons infected with HIV. It investigates the impact of the refusal to grant them life insurance because of their HIV status. This chapter shows how the insurance business infringes the rights of HIV positive persons ot non0discriminatory treatment. Chapter four looks at the position of foreign jurisdictions in the conflict of interests and analyses how they have dealt with the human rights implications of insurance companies policy towards the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Chapter five is the concluding chapter, which puts forward redommendations." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2003. / Prepared under the supervision of Adv. Annelize Nienaber at the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

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Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (hereafter HIV/AIDS) in South Africa are epidemic virus and disease respectively, item 1.1 of the EEA Code of Good Practice on Key Aspects of HIV/AIDS and Employment, 2000 states that HIV/AIDS are serious public health problems, which have socio-economic, employment and human rights implications on the society, employees inclusive. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 and Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair discrimination 4 of 2000, international and regional instruments and standards provide protection to HIV positive employees in the workplace. Notwithstanding this plethora of legislation, employees are still faced with the problems of being stigmatised, unfairly discriminated against and ultimately dismissed from work for being HIV positive. Employees are subjected to HIV testing and the information about their HIV statuses is still being disclosed without their informed consent and their right to privacy and confidentiality may be violated. These possible violations of employees’ rights may affect the economy of the country. When employees are dismissed, the amount of production and profits for the employers decrease and as a result the government loses tax revenue, the unemployment and poverty rates increase. Hence it is imperative to investigate the problems of stigmatisation, unfair discrimination and dismissals in order to see to what extent are employees’ rights protected. There will be a comparative study in Canada which is experiencing the same problems as South Africa in order to find out how Canada can provide solution to South African problems. / LLM (Labour Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (hereafter HIV/AIDS) in South Africa are epidemic virus and disease respectively, item 1.1 of the EEA Code of Good Practice on Key Aspects of HIV/AIDS and Employment, 2000 states that HIV/AIDS are serious public health problems, which have socio-economic, employment and human rights implications on the society, employees inclusive. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 and Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair discrimination 4 of 2000, international and regional instruments and standards provide protection to HIV positive employees in the workplace. Notwithstanding this plethora of legislation, employees are still faced with the problems of being stigmatised, unfairly discriminated against and ultimately dismissed from work for being HIV positive. Employees are subjected to HIV testing and the information about their HIV statuses is still being disclosed without their informed consent and their right to privacy and confidentiality may be violated. These possible violations of employees’ rights may affect the economy of the country. When employees are dismissed, the amount of production and profits for the employers decrease and as a result the government loses tax revenue, the unemployment and poverty rates increase. Hence it is imperative to investigate the problems of stigmatisation, unfair discrimination and dismissals in order to see to what extent are employees’ rights protected. There will be a comparative study in Canada which is experiencing the same problems as South Africa in order to find out how Canada can provide solution to South African problems. / LLM (Labour Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The study sought to explore and describe the breastfeeding practices of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) positive postnatal clients’ non-commitment to exclusive breastfeeding in George Mukhari Hospital, South Africa. A non-experimental quantitative design was used. Inferences drawn from the study were that HIV positive clients that opted for exclusive breastfeeding did not commit for fear of transmission of HIV to the baby and exclusive breastfeeding was stopped before the recommended 6 months. Most of the respondents’ partners did not come for counselling. There was lack of emotional support by staff after testing. Health education and emotional support of HIV positive clients has to be intensified. / Health Studies / M. A. (Health Studies)

The study sought to explore and describe the breastfeeding practices of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) positive postnatal clients’ non-commitment to exclusive breastfeeding in George Mukhari Hospital, South Africa. A non-experimental quantitative design was used. Inferences drawn from the study were that HIV positive clients that opted for exclusive breastfeeding did not commit for fear of transmission of HIV to the baby and exclusive breastfeeding was stopped before the recommended 6 months. Most of the respondents’ partners did not come for counselling. There was lack of emotional support by staff after testing. Health education and emotional support of HIV positive clients has to be intensified. / Health Studies / M. A. (Health Studies)

Since 2002, the Canadian state has mandatorily tested applicants for permanent residence for HIV (Human immune deficiency virus). The policy and practices associated with this screening have never been critically scrutinized. Authoritative claims about what happens in the conduct of the immigration medical examination are at odds with the experience of immigrant applicants living with HIV. This is the analytic entry point into this inquiry that is organized within the theoretical and methodological frame offered by institutional ethnography and political activist ethnography. Analysis is connected to broader research literatures and the historical record. The goal of this study is to produce detailed, contextualized understandings of the social and ruling relations that organize the lives of immigrants to Canada living with HIV. These are generated from the material conditions of their lives. An assumption about how organization happens is the social and reflexive production of knowledge in people’s day-to-day lives through which connections between local and extra-local settings are empirically investigable. I investigate the organization of the Canadian immigration process. How is this institutional complex ordered and governed? How is immigration mandatory HIV testing organized, and with what consequences to HIV-positive applicants to Canada? This is a text-mediated organization where all the sites are connected by people’s work and the texts they circulate. The positive result of an immigration HIV test catalyzes the state’s collection of medical data about an applicant. These are entered into state decision-making about the person’s in/admissibility to Canada. I focus on a key component of the immigration process, which is medical examination and HIV testing with this, along with the HIV test counselling practices that happen (or not) there. The reported absence of the latter form of care causes problems and contradictions for people. This investigation adopts the standpoint of these persons to investigate their problems associated with HIV testing. The main empirically supported argument I make is that the Canadian state’s ideological work related to the HIV policy and mandatory screening ushers in a set of institutional practices that are highly problematic for immigrants with HIV. This argument relies on data collected in interviews, focus groups, observations, and analysis of texts organized under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (S.C., 2001, c. 27) and textually mediated, discursively organized concepts that shape people’s practice. Canadian immigration medical policy makers should make use of these findings, as should civil society activists acting on behalf of immigrants to Canada living with HIV. I make nine specific recommendations for future action on HIV and immigration in Canada.

The major global concern of preventing the spread of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) requires that millions of people be tested in order to identify those individuals who need treatment and care. This study’s purpose was to examine the role of social networks in an individual’s decision to test for HIV. The study sample included 62 participants of African and Caribbean origin in Toronto, Canada. Thirty-three females and 29 males, aged 16 to 49 years who had previously tested positive or negative for HIV, participated in interviews that lasted approximately 60 minutes. Measurement instruments adapted from Silverman, Hecht, McMillin, and Chang (2008) were used to identify and delimit the social networks of the participants. The instrument identified four social network types: immediate family, extended family, friends, and acquaintances. The study examined the role of these network types on the individuals’ decisions to get HIV testing. A mixed method approach (Creswell, 2008) was applied, and both qualitative and quantitative data were collected simultaneously. Participants listed their social networks and retrospectively described the role of their network members in influencing their decision to test for HIV. The participants’ narratives of the influence of social networks in HIV testing were coded. A thematic analysis of the qualitative descriptions of the network members’ influence was performed. The quantitative and the qualitative analysis results were then tallied. The results of the study demonstrated that the influence of social networks was evident in the individuals’ decisions to test for HIV. The most influential group was friends, followed in descending order of influence by immediate family, acquaintances, and extended family. These social network ties provided informational, material, and emotional support to individuals deciding to seek HIV testing. For policy makers and health professionals, coming to a more complete understanding of these dynamics will enable them to make institutional decisions and allocate resources to improve and enhance the support available from within these social networks, thus encouraging, promoting, and leading to increased testing for HIV.