Stigma and discrimination against HIV/AIDS victims still exists among the people

In Tanzania, like in any other country elsewhere in the world, there are well-documented cases of people with HIV/AIDS being stigmatized, discriminated against and sometimes denied access to services on the ground of their zero status. In spite of efforts to prevent the scourge, the persistent stigma and discrimination increase the impact of the epidemic on families and nations. The habit has long been condemned by various human rights organizations as an irresponsible act because it encourages, rather than prevent the spread of the scourge. This sort of discrimination is intensely personal and it takes many forms, such as families and communities may reject and ostracize those living or believed to be living with HIV/AIDS, or in-laws boycotting the widow of a son who has died from the disease and many other related examples. The stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS have many other effects in a society. To mention a few in particular, they have powerful, psychological consequences for how many people with HIV/AIDS come to see themselves, leading some cases to depression. Lack of HIV/AIDS awareness in societies is a prime cause which leads people to stigmatize and discriminate. Such acts are based on presumed or actual HIV-positive status and hence this is contrary to human rights. The HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination are triggered by many forces including lack of understanding of the disease, myths about how HIV is transmitted, prejudice, lack of treatment and irresponsible media on the reporting of the epidemic. All these contribute to the way people react towards the infected. People may lack education to understand that the spread through everyday contacts can be avoided by adoption of relatively simple precautions. There are many examples of initial efforts to eliminate these forms of stigma and discrimination and their success depends of people’s efforts. Stigma has ancient roots and it has been described as a quality that significantly discredits an individual in the eyes of others. It has also important consequences for the way in which individuals come to see themselves. Much HIV/AIDS related stigma builds upon and reinforces earlier negative thoughts. People with HIV/AIDS are often believed to have deserved what has happened to them, being thought doing something wrong in their lives. Often these wrong doings are linked to sex or to illegal and socially frowned activities, such as drug use, men who becomes infected bisexually or as having unsafe sexual intercourse with prostitutes on the streets. Women with HIV/AIDS are viewed often to perpetuate stigma and discrimination, partly through fear, partly through ignorance and partly because it is convenient to blame those who have been affected first. It is also necessary when analyzing the roots and results of stigma to demonstrate how different groups experience stigma and most particularly how men and women are differently affected by it. Stigma is linked to power and domination throughout societies as a whole. It plays a key role that ultimately creates social inequality. Stigma has its origins deep within the structure of society as a whole and in the norms and values that govern much of everyday life. Stigma and discrimination against AIDS sufferers causes some groups of people feel superior than others. For example. Long ideologies of gender inequality have resulted in women being blamed for the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. HIV/AIDS related stigma often leads to a discriminative attitude, which is difficult to overcome and this, in turn leads to a disregard of the dignity of people living with HIV/AIDS virus, their families and even those who are thought of being infected. Beyond legal redress, there are many other ways of tackling HIV/AIDS related stigma. Public information campaigns as these have an important role to play in helping people understand the unfairness and injustice of discrimination. The campaigns can change individual and social attitudes, participatory education can help individuals place themselves to respect those who suffer discrimination and thereby appreciate the injustices of discriminatory actions.

Children affected with HIV/AIDS disease are still being discriminated in our societies.

Though grass-root activism, advocacy and involvement in development and implementation policy, actions of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS can be radical force for change, breaking down the barriers to the full realization of human rights. In Tanzania here, one important observation is that most of these reported cases involve people living in urban areas, who can at least afford to access hospital treatment. But people in rural areas have a disadvantage for this, for reasons ranging from ignorance where there is still a belief that those suffering from HIV/AIDS disease have been bewitched. According to Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS), the infection rate was rising in the country due to increased cases of stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS. According to the commission, people fear to go to the voluntary test because once they knew that they are infected, they would be automatically stigmatized by some of their friends, neighbors and even their family members. However, an AIDS activist in the country Miss Flora Njunwa suggest that, a law to penalize those who are fond of stigmatizing the infected individuals in the country should be enacted, noting that this state of affair has instilled fear to undergo tests to determine people’s health status. As tools for tackling HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination , policy and legal reform stakeholders have a limited impact unless supported by the values and expectations of a society as a whole. Documented efforts to challenge HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination remains relatively rare. Research work is urgently needed to identify the least effective ways of tackling stigma and discrimination across a range of contexts. With respect to measures to counter discrimination, a more programmatic approach has frequently been adopted. This has involved a variety of actors coming together to counter the negative consequences of HIV/AIDS related stigma as it impacts upon lives and communities. Too often in the past, understanding was linked to a model of enlightment in which those who know best intervene to redress negative mentalities and attitudes. This approach regard those who are being educated as instrumental to empowering communities through participatory processes that unleash their knowledge and experiences. The success approach in this needs a long-term advocacy for social change in response to HIV/AIDFS related stigmatization and discrimination. The role of people with HIV/AIDS and of religious and political leaders in the country as regards such a process cannot be underestimated. Comprehensive care and services, including voluntary counseling and testing and care are available to enable individuals to learn their status and enable them to share their status with other family members. A legal protection for people living with HIV/AIDS is a powerful way of redressing and thereby mitigating the unequal power relations, the social inequality and the exclusion that lie beneath HIV/AIDS related stigmatization and discrimination. Action is needed to tackle gender, racial and sexual inequalities and stereotypes upon which HIV/AIDS related stigmatization and discrimination.