'To tell or not to tell' (Paperback)

Disclosure of HIV status can play an important role in promoting health and well-being of people living with HIV/AIDS, and in prevention. This potential is limited by low disclosure levels, as well as a preference for a partial and delayed disclosure. This book identifies HIV stigma as a key factor in low disclosure levels and a preference for partial disclosure, in a disadvantaged South African township. It suggests that HIV stigma is based on a conceptualization of HIV/AIDS as a highly contagious, deadly, incurable, and poorly understood disease, and should primarily be understood as a defensive denial of risk against a threat, which the community perceives to be vulnerable to. It also argues that social marginalization in post-apartheid South Africa has contributed to this sense of vulnerability, and thus to stigma. An ambivalent political response during Thabo Mbeki's presidency contributed to a reluctance to disclose as well as exacerbated HIV stigma. The book suggests that HIV stigma should be addressed through tackling symbolic and instrumental stigma, and through replacing the association between HIV/AIDS and death with a discourse of hope.