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For decades, northern Thailand has been a hub for migration in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, particularly for migrants from Myanmar. HIV prevalence among Myanmar/Burmese migrants is higher than in the general Thai population. This study aims to focus on Shan migrants living with HIV in Chiang Mai, the metropolitan centre of northern Thailand and to examine two related aspects: migrants’ sexual risk behaviour and their HIV knowledge and beliefs. The study aims to understand circumstances in which mobility increases HIV risk behaviour and prevalence.

Using a qualitative study, the authors conducted in-depth interviews in 2017 with 43 HIV-infected Shan migrants (21 males and 22 females), and 29 health-care providers who work in district hospitals in Chiang Mai.

The authors found that social and economic vulnerability associated with migration, and AIDS-related mortality, increased migrants’ likelihood of having multiple serial partners. Confusion about HIV symptoms, stigmatization of HIV positive women and low risk perceptions, particularly among men, increased their risk behaviours.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to study the way of life, sexual behaviour and HIV knowledge and beliefs of Shan Migrants from Myanmar Living with HIV in Thailand.

The purpose of this paper is to show that HIV/AIDS‐related stigma has persisted world‐wide for decades. However, studies on the linkage between stigmatizing attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and misconceptions about HIV transmission routes in the general population, especially among youth in China, are sparse – a gap this study is intended to fill.

Cross‐sectional data from 1,839 students from 19 colleges were collected by trained interviewers using a structured questionnaire in Jiangsu province of China.

This study reveals that there is a high proportion of college students having both stigmatizing attitudes toward PLWHA and misconceptions about HIV/AIDS transmission routes. Multilevel logistic regression analysis results show that having stigmatizing attitudes towards PLWHA is positively associated with having misconceptions about HIV transmission routes. Participants with high misconception scores were more likely to possess stigmatizing attitudes towards PLWHA.

To reduce stigmatizing attitudes towards PLWHA, HIV/AIDS education should be strengthened among the general population, especially among youth.

Using a health belief model (HBM), this study aims to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of Iranian midwives in relation to HIV/AIDS protection behavior and to determine the needs of interventional programs for promotion of the behavior among midwives of maternity care units.

This was a cross‐sectional study in five selected hospitals in Isfahan. All 58 midwifery personnel of maternity wards of these hospitals participated in the study. Tools for data collection were a checklist to assess midwives' practice and a questionnaire to assess knowledge, attitude, and the HBM of midwives about HIV/AIDS‐protection methods.

A total of 58 midwifery personnel with average working experience of 10.92±7.98 years were assessed in the study and with a high knowledge, positive attitude and moderate practice about HIV/AIDS protection methods. The midwives perceived two main barriers, which impacted on their self‐efficacy and their protection behavior. These barriers were the emergency conditions of the work and the low availability of protective equipment.

HIV/AIDS protection behavior and HBM of midwives can be promoted by overcoming management barriers such as inadequate midwifery personnel in emergency conditions and insufficient protective equipment. The behavior also needs to be promoted by educational interventions which focus on improving midwives' perceived risk of HIV/AIDS infection.

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) (2001) urges African leaders to take responsibility for revitalizing and extending the provision of education, technical training and health services with high priority given to tackling HIV/AIDS, TB and other communicable diseases. The International Labor Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) both agree that occupational health and safety in Africa needs strengthening. In support of this realization are the need to maintain and promote workers' health and working capacity. The fight against HIV/AIDS in the workplace is a continental priority. In the absence of any other definitive or similar study, this study aims to establish a valid baseline assessment of the levels of knowledge, types of attitudes, perceptions and beliefs of older construction workers in South Africa regarding HIV infection and AIDS. This paper reports only on findings concerning the level of knowledge and awareness of HIV/AIDS among older construction workers as determined during the first phase of an exploratory study commenced in August 2002. Older construction workers generally had acceptable levels of correct knowledge, perceptions and attitudes on most issues relative to the disease. However, their employers had not played a major contributory role. The study highlighted several areas where older workers either had incorrect and deficient knowledge and attitudes or demonstrated high levels of uncertainty.

U.S. health policy promotes HIV testing and linkage to care (test-and-treat) with an emphasis on high risk groups such as convicted offenders. We sought to identify whether or not laws for mandatory HIV disclosure to sexual partners are a barrier to HIV testing among offenders under community supervision.

A total of 197 probationers and parolees were surveyed in a closed/item-open-ended item methodology on two reporting days in Alabama. Three main questions were asked: (1) What do offenders know about HIV? (2) What do they know about the law? (3) Do they support mandatory disclosure and HIV testing? Data for the quantitative items were analyzed with SPSS and matched with open-ended responses for explanatory purposes.

Testing and criminalization of non-disclosure were fully supported as key elements of HIV prevention. This support was framed by conceptions of HIV as a killer disease, of people with HIV as potential murderers, and by low self-awareness of HIV risk.

While the study involved only a single group of convicted offenders in a southern state, the results suggest that disclosure laws legitimize HIV stigma and undermine test-and-treat strategies among communities at risk.

The research is the first of its kind to investigate possible links between HIV criminalization and barriers to HIV prevention and care among convicted offenders.

The purpose of this paper is to report on research that uncovered myths about HIV and AIDS held by serodiscordant couples in Malawi, and the sources of these myths. The paper reflects on how the myths affect serodiscordant couples’ engagement with HIV and AIDS information.

Van Manen’s (1997) approach to analysis of phenomenological data was used to analyse data from in-depth interviews conducted in Malawi with 21 serodiscordant couples and three individuals who had separated from their partners because of serodiscordance.

Serodiscordant couples in Malawi believe and hold on to some inaccurate HIV and AIDS information that can be seen as “myths”. Some of these myths are perpetuated by official HIV and AIDS information when it is translated into the local languages. Other myths derive from social norms of the societies where the couples live.

The findings of this paper have practical implications for how HIV and AIDS information providers should engage with target audiences to understand the origins of the myths they hold. The findings also imply that some myths have technical, religious, moral and cultural bases which need to be addressed before challenging the myth itself.

Using real-life descriptions of experiences of HIV and AIDS information provided by serodiscordant couples, the authors reveal how myths can affect engagement with the information. The authors make recommendations on how to address myths in ways that contribute to a positive experience of HIV and AIDS information by serodiscordant couples.

The purpose of the study was to analyse approaches to HIV/AIDS education adopted by the Zambian Ministry of Education (MoE), using a holistic approach and focusing on the Zambian culture. This chapter reports on an explorative qualitative study involving focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with Ministry of Education and Health officials, pupils, students, and members of the community. Qualitative analysis was applied and themes from ecological theory were used to organise and discuss data. At the macro level, there was inadequate implementation of HIV/AIDS education in schools, very few handbooks, textbooks and learners’ reading materials, and no discussion of the Zambian cultural (sexual) practices in relation to HIV/AIDS education. Inadequate laws and policies on HIV/AIDS prevention, poverty, unemployment, lack of job creation, and lack of social security were blamed for the lack of positive sexual behaviour changes. Communities had strong theological and metaphysical beliefs including witchcraft and sex with a widow, a menstruating woman or a woman who had an abortion as possible causes of HIV and incurable diseases being a curse from God. At the individual level, the knowledge of HIV/AIDS was high with radio and television being sources of information. Respondents viewed sexual cultures in communities not to have significantly changed. A majority of respondents did not use condoms; most adults continued having multiple sexual partners and women were submissive in marriages. This chapter is useful to policy makers, teachers, pupils/students, and the community, and in understanding interactions and influences of cultures on HIV/AIDS education and government's role in creating an enabling environment to sustain desirable changes.

Concentrates on HIV/AIDS prevention practitioners and how the AIDS epidemic can be recognized in such a way as to influence individuals to assist in prevention. Highlights how the gay community, in particular, have managed to reduce deaths and infection but that the newer members of the community seem to be falling by the wayside now. Discusses social and psychological theories involved in the fight in AIDS prevention. States that in the USA the effective interventions being discontinued are the poorly funded or not at all. Concludes the fight against AIDS through publicity and knowledge must go on.

Much attention is given to the topic of HIV/ AIDS within the general population and several specific professions, namely the medical and related health‐care fields. By comparison, little serious attention is devoted to the implications this deadly disease poses for the law enforcement profession and its practitioners. In response to this situation, a study was undertaken to assess the nature, accuracy and extent of officers’ beliefs, perceptions and attitudes about HIV/AIDS as it relates to the performance of their daily law enforcement responsibilities. Preliminary results from this empirical effort indicate that officers do in fact possess a range of personal views that are expected to directly influence the profession’s future development. Selected findings and their implications for both training and policy initiatives, as well as suggestions for additional empirical research endeavours, are presented and discussed.

Assesses the health belief model and its application to the perception of HIV/AIDS prevention through public health education. Investigates the concepts of stigma and blame among the Chinese, Malay and Indian Singaporeans. Describes the methodology and data analysis used. Analyses the findings – that the significant majority believe HIV/AIDS sufferers to be risk‐takers (rather than deviants) and that the most effective preventive measure against AIDS is to change sexual behaviour. Compares findings across the three ethnic groups – Malays believe that the individual is personally responsible for contracting HIV/AIDS, they also recognize the seriousness of the disease; the Indians had a sense of concerned responsibility, partially as a result of public health campaigns; the Chinese also had a sense of concerned responsibility, but not gleaned so much from health campaigns. Reports that, across the communities, younger people attribute HIV/AIDS to deviant sexual behaviour, while older people think of HIV/AIDS sufferers as victims of accidental infection and are therefore more sympathetic. Attributes ethnic differences to two facts: the first is that, in Singapore, people regard dual identify as important – on the one hand helping to shape Singapore’s national identity and, on the other hand, retaining strong values of ethnicity; the second fact is religion, particularly the way Malay Muslims attribute HIV/AIDS to personal responsibility.