Tabula diptycha: Differential HIV knowledge, stigma and intended behavioural outcomes amongst visitors at Vietnam'sPain and Hopeexhibition

Abstract

Stigma reduction efforts in Vietnam have been encumbered by contradictory and dynamic views of People Living With HIV (PLWH) and the epidemic over the past two decades. World AIDS Day 2010 saw the launch of Pain and Hope, a museum exhibition showcasing the lives and experiences of Vietnamese People Living with AIDS at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology (VME). Between December 2010 and May 2011, a random sample of visitors completed exit surveys regarding attitudes towards the exhibition and Vietnamese living with HIV/AIDS. The survey sought to determine what kind of visitors the museum and exhibition attracted, and the stigma-related impacts of this kind of exposure and parasocial contact. Of 2,500 Vietnamese visitors randomly selected, 852 completed the computer surveys (response rate of 34.1%), 92.3% of whom had seen Pain and Hope. We found two sub-strata or types of visitors attending the exhibition, with varying demographic characteristics, HIV-related knowledge, some differences in stigma ideation, and clear differences in intended behaviours specifically attributable to the exhibition. Social desirability biases notwithstanding, there has emerged a diptych typology of visitors to the VME, for whom the experience of the exhibition is likely interacting with divergent prior knowledge, experiences, interests and motivations.

Changing Sources of Stigma against Patients with HIV/AIDS in the Rapid Expansion of Antiretroviral Treatment Services in Vietnam

“…People living with HIV (PLWH) usually experience self-blaming, social isolation, physical or verbal abuse, mistreating, and political discrimination. This decreases the likelihood of HIV status disclosure, causes adverse health effects such as depression or anxiety, and impacts treatment adherence [6–8]. Injecting drug users (IDU), female sex worker (FSW), and men who have sex with men (MSM) experience double stigma due to their HIV status and their considerably “illegal and immoral” behaviors.…”