| dc.description.abstract | Though much study has been conducted on HIV/AIDS and its scope, the area that
seems to have been relegated to the back of most studies is about stigma and how it
affects the overall outcome of the existing measures to mitigate the effects of the
pandemic to the infected, affected and the community at large. Despite all the efforts
that have been put in place, there are still many cases of treatment failure. Treatment
success is when the measures being employed help the infected live and leads a normal
life even when testing HIV/AIDS positive while failure would imply where the
condition of the patient deteriorates progressively inspite of being on treatment. Most
studies are concentrated on these known factors, that is, non-adherence, drug toxicity
and potency of the antiretroviral regimen but studies on the stigma and its contribution
to treatment failure has been neglected. This is the gap that my study was aimed at
exploring as a way of knowledge furtherance. The study sought to establish the level of
treatment failure among HIV patients undergoing treatment, to identify the causes of
stigma among HIV patients undergoing treatment, to determine how stigma contributes
to the failure in treatment among HIV patients undergoing treatment and to find out
strategies of stigma reduction among HIV patients undergoing treatment. This research
problem was studied through the use of a descriptive survey research design. The target
population of this study was 298 respondents comprising 23 staff members and 275
HIV patients undergoing treatment at Mbagathi District Hospital. The researcher used
purposeful sampling to select 13 staff members dealing with HIV treatment and simple
random sampling to select 155 HIV patients undergoing treatment using random
number tables. Qualitative data was collected by use of interview guides while
quantitative data was collected by use of semi-structured questionnaires. The
quantitative data in this research was analyzed by descriptive statistics using statistical
package for social sciences (SPSS V 21.0). The study concludes that people often avoid
being associated with HIV, with devastating effects on prevention, care and treatment.
Stigma can reduce the likelihood of people using condoms and accessing preventive
services such as educational meetings and counselling. People who hold stigmatizing
attitudes are also less likely to adopt preventive behaviours. The study also concludes
that stigma often prevents disclosure of an HIV-positive status to partners, providers
and family members, which in turn deter behaviours that can prevent further spread of
HIV, such as condom use, or mitigate its impact, such as care seeking. The study
further concludes that stigma deters use of health facilities and adversely affects quality
of health services. The study recommends that there is need to understand the
underlying factors producing stigma, integrate action on these into programs wherever
possible including participatory reflection and action in and by the communities
concerned. The study also recommends that there is need to involve people living with
HIV and AIDS in program interventions at all levels- community, district and national
level. Their involvement should also extend to policy development, research and
evaluation. NACC should address stigma at levels where it arises or where it can be
acted on in communities, including workplaces, Media, Recreational facilities, Schools,
Churches and in Faith-based organizations. The government should promote
complementary action on stigma at the level of individuals, families, social groups,
organizations and at national level. | en_US |
