HIV as social and ecological experience

Publication date: Available online 16 April 2018 Source:Social Science & Medicine Author(s): Brian King, Margaret S. Winchester The spread and varied impacts of the HIV/AIDS epidemic demonstrate the complex and reciprocal relationships between the socio-political and biophysical dimensions of human health. Yet even with increasing research and policy attention there remain critical gaps in the literature on how HIV-positive households manage health through their engagement with social and ecological systems. This is particularly urgent given improvements in the global response to the epidemic, whereby expanded access to antiretroviral therapy has extended the possibility for survival for years or decades. Because many HIV-positive families and communities in the Global South remain dependent upon a diverse set of resources to generate income and meet subsistence needs, the impacts of disease must be understood within a mix of social processes, including the maintenance of land and collection of natural resources. Similarly, biophysical systems disrupted by HIV/AIDS vary depending upon resource use and locally-specific dynamics that influence opportunities for agrarian production. This paper reports on the findings from a structured survey completed in three communities in northeast South Africa in 2013 that is integrated with focus group discussions and qualitative interviews conducted from 2013–2016. We concentrate upon the diverse ways that individuals and fam...
Source: Social Science and Medicine - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research