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Stigma and Women with HIV/AIDS in North Sulawesi

Leviane J. H. Lotulung, Sintje A. Rondonuwu and Selvie M. Tumengkol

Communication Science Department, Universitas Sam Ratulangi, Manado, Indonesia

Sociology Department, Universitas Sam Ratulangi, Manado, Indonesia

Keywords: Women, Stigma, HIV/AIDS

Abstract: Women with HIV/AIDS, experienced so far continue to be shunned by families and even surrounding

communities, due to the illness they suffer. While this disease, is not always related to oneself with HIV /

AIDS with HIV, AIDS, or HIV, but many other causes that they become ODHA. Social punishment for people

with HIV/AIDS is more severe when compared with sufferers of other diseases. The negative stigma

announced by HIV / AIDS women because of their negative behaviour in free sex or injection needle users

seriously hurt them. Not infrequently they become loners or are indeed exiled and have no longer interacted

with the environment as a result, in which they will form a negative self-concept. George Mead & Herber

Blumer. Because they want to enjoy the experience of women from households with HIV / AIDS and how to

interpret them related to self-concept. The reason, because in this study, the researchers wanted to explore the

experiences of women (not CSWs) sufferers of HIV / AIDS in the City of Bitung and Manado. In this study,

the sampling technique used was purposive. While the data collection techniques used are in-depth interviews,

observation, and document review.

1 INTRODUCTION

Manado Post Newspaper, December 1, 2015 edition

titled Don't Stay Away from PLWHA, explains how

ODHA (People with HIV / AIDS) feel that they are

being kept shunned by their families and even their

neighbours, due to their illnesses. While there is

currently no cure for this disease, it is not always

caused by people living with HIV / AIDS themselves

with the problem of free sex or injection drug use, but

many mean they become PLWHA.

AIDS is estimated to have infected 38.6 million

people worldwide. In January 2006, UNAIDS, in

collaboration with WHO estimated that AIDS had

caused the deaths of more than 25 million people

since it was first recognized on June 5, 1981. Thus,

this disease was one of the deadliest outbreaks in

history. AIDS is claimed to have caused as many as

2.4 to 3.3 million deaths in 2005 alone, and more than

570,000 of them were children.

Social penalties for people with HIV / AIDS,

generally more severe when compared with patients

with other deadly diseases. The situation occurred

because of the stigma that people with HIV / AIDS

were caused by deviant behaviour by having free sex

or injecting drug users. Many reasons why people are

exposed to the deadly virus such as contracting from

their husbands, contracting from biological mothers

during pregnancy and childbirth, and blood

transfusions. With the existence of an unfortunate

stigma against PLWHA, it will affect the self-concept

of PLWHA, and it makes them difficult to get along.

North Sulawesi Province from year to year there

has been an increase in HIV AIDS sufferers, along

with data on people living with HIV / AIDS in North

Sulawesi from the North Sulawesi Health Office,

quoted from Koran Sindo Edition 1 December 2015.

Table 1: People living with HIV/AIDS in North Sulawesi

Province of HIV/AIDS died.

Years HIV AIDS Patients Die

1997 0 1 1 1

1998 0 1 1 1

1999 0 1 1 1

2000 3 4 7 4

2001 5 1 6 1

2002 5 13 18 4

2003 2 6 8 4

2004 9 9 18 5

2005 30 47 77 13

2006 61 38 99 19

2007 29 43 72 14

2008 55 93 148 20

438

J. H. Lotulung, L., A. Rondonuwu, S. and M. Tumengkol, S.

Stigma and Women with HIV/AIDS in North Sulawesi.

DOI: 10.5220/0010686600002967

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of Vocational Higher Education (ICVHE 2019) - Empowering Human Capital Towards Sustainable 4.0 Industry, pages 438-441

ISBN: 978-989-758-530-2; ISSN: 2184-9870

2009 38 112 150 17

2010 38 114 152 9

2011 74 128 202 18

2012 88 148 236 24

2013 82 164 246 22

2014 62 195 257 19

2015 52 126 178 8

Total 633 1.244 1.887 204

The data above shows a significant amount that

must be the concern of all parties that prevention

socialization must be carried out simultaneously. This

large number does not describe something authentic

because, like an iceberg phenomenon, the figures

above only show sufferers that can be accessed

through hospitals, even though there are still far more

undetected.

In addition to the problem of prevention, the

problem of patient empowerment must also continue

to be optimized not to be excluded or excluded from

social life. The community should provide support,

especially emotional support, to sufferers so that the

problems they experience are not widespread. The

community has several essential responsibilities for

HIV / AIDS prevention, namely: finding and

providing clear and correct information to people who

need it about HIV / AIDS transmission, being

friendly, not gossiping about, and underestimating

sufferers, supporting and assisting government

programs in HIV / AIDS prevention, help sufferers

find healthy defence mechanisms, including always

positive attitudes in dealing with so many challenges

and stress in the course of their illness, and help

sufferers develop strategies to deal with real crises

that may occur, both in health and socioeconomic,

and other things in life.

People's attitudes that give negative attitudes

towards sufferers only add to the level of problems

that cause severe psychological effects on them. This

can be encouraging in some cases, such as depression,

lack of self-esteem, and hopelessness. Women with

HIV who should have the support of all parties,

especially emotional support, so that the problems

they experience are not widespread.

With these problems, the purpose of this study is why

there is a negative stigma on women with HIV / AIDS

and what about women with HIV / AIDS?

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Get to Know HIV AIDS

AIDS is short for 'Acquired Immune Deficiency

Syndrome'. Acquired means obtained, not a

bloodline. Immune is related to our immune system.

Deficiency means deficiency. Syndrome or syndrome

means a disease with a collection of symptoms, not

specific symptoms. So AIDS means a collection of

symptoms due to deficiency or weakness of the

immune system that is formed after birth. AIDS is a

collection of disease symptoms arising from a

decrease in the acquired human immune system (not

due to heredity) but is caused by HIV.

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a disease

that is a collection of symptoms due to decreased

immune system that occurs because someone is

infected with HIV. While HIV stands for Human

Immuno Virus, which means a virus that attacks the

human immune system. This can happen because

HIV is a family of retroviruses, which attack the

immune system, especially lymphocytes. Because

HIV damages white blood cells, over time, the human

immune system collapses. That's when various

diseases carried by viruses, germs, bacteria and others

are straightforward to attack someone who has been

infected with HIV. So, HIV is a virus that attacks the

human immune system and then causes AIDS

The difference between an HIV positive person and a

person living with AIDS is that if an HIV positive

person is someone who is infected with the HIV, it

appears healthy without symptoms of any disease, but

can transmit the AIDS virus to others. Being an AIDS

sufferer is someone who shows symptoms of a group

of diseases that have been infected with HIV for a

long time. And usually occur between 5-10 years after

contracting HIV.

2.2 Symbolic Interaction Theory

George Mead & Herber Blumer

This theory seeks to understand human behaviour

from a subjective point of view. Humans act only

based on their definition or interpretation of the

objects around them. The definitions they give to

others, situations, objects, and even themselves

determine their behaviour.

Symbolic interactions originate among others

from the works of John Dewey, Charles Harton

Cooley, Robert Park, William Isaac Thomas and

George Herbert Mead. Even though the

interactionists still differ from one another about the

meaning and importance of various concepts that

Stigma and Women with HIV/AIDS in North Sulawesi

439

have to do with symbolic interactions. Until now, the

Mead formulation contained in his book Mind, Self,

Society is the most comprehensive and least

controversial presentation of that perspective.

For these theorists, people are always in the

process of interpretation and definition as they move

from one situation to another. All of these situations

consist of the doer, other people and their actions, and

physical objects. However, a situation can only have

meaning through people's interpretation and

definition of the situation. Meanwhile, other people's

actions come from that meaning. So this process of

interpretation functions as an intermediary for every

tendency to act, in addition to that as the action itself.

According to the view of symbolic interaction, as

Herbert Blumer (1969) asserted, it is the social

processes in group life that create and enforce rules,

not the rules that create and enforce group life. In this

context, the meaning is constructed in the process of

interaction, and the process is not a neutral medium

that allows social forces to play their role, but rather

is the substance of social organization and social

forces.

The theory of symbolic interactionism can be

briefly based on three basic premises. First,

individuals respond to a typical situation. They

respond to the environment, including physical

objects (objects) and everyday objects (human

behaviour) based on the meaning that these

environmental components contain for them

individuals are seen to be active in determining their

environment. Second, the meaning is a product of

social interaction, because it is not inherent in objects,

but negotiated through the use of language. Third, the

meaning interpreted by an individual can change from

time to time, in line with changes in the situation

found in social interaction. Changes in interpretation

are possible because individuals can do mental

processes, i.e. communicate with themselves.

(Mulyana, 2010: 71-72)

2.3 Prior Research

Research on the problem of HIV / AIDS, ranging

from treatment, prevention, anti-HIV / AIDS

campaigns is not new. Since the knowledge of this

disease around 1988, the world of medicine plus

related parties including social researchers have been

looking for ways to prevent the spread of this disease

through various studies including the social impact of

this disease.

In a study from STKS Bandung, it was found that

the issues of stigma and discrimination experienced

by PLWHA, both from family, neighbours, the world

of work, schools, and other members of the

community, further aggravated his condition and

were even sicker than the impact of his illness.

Lack of family and community understanding of

HIV / AIDS worsens the situation of sufferers. HIV /

AIDS is still considered a frightening spectre,

because when convicted as PLWHA, what comes to

mind is death. In the community sufferers often

receive unfair treatment or even get discrimination

from the family and community environment.

While research from Surahman et al. found that

sufferers experience anxiety, stress, depression,

mental turmoil, discrimination and stigmatization.

Furthermore, these conditions will inhibit the

development of positive self-concept of PLWHA,

causing feelings of inferiority, and feeling yourself

worthless.

3 RESEARCH METHODS

This research is a qualitative interpretive approach.

The reason is that in this study, the researchers

wanted to explore the experiences of HIV / AIDS

women, especially infected homemakers from their

partners in the cities of Bitung and Manado. As the

interpretivism approach assumes that individuals

always try to understand the world in which they live

and work. Creswell (2013: 11) states humans then

develop subjective meanings of their experiences,

meanings directed at particular objects or objects. The

meanings are also quite numerous and varied so that

researchers are required to look more for the

complexity of views rather than narrowing down the

meanings into categories or ideas. The researcher

tries to rely on as much as possible the views of the

participants about the situation being studied. To

explore these views, questions also need to be asked.

The more open the question, the better it will be so

that researchers can listen more closely to what

participants are saying and doing in their lives.

To direct the research objectives, this study uses

two types of data, namely: Primary data and

secondary data. Primary data is data collected directly

by researchers from informants through in-depth

interviews and observations. Secondary data is data

that is not directly collected or through second hand

or in other forms such as data/writing in newspapers

or so forth. Secondary data usually refers to literature

sources and some sources of information related to

self-concept and HIV / AIDS.

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4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Scientists generally believe that AIDS originated in

Sub-Saharan Africa. Now AIDS has become an

epidemic. AIDS is estimated to have infected 38.6

million people worldwide. The emergence of this

disease directly horrendous to the world, because it

was allegedly AIDS originated from deviant sexual

behaviour, such as homosexual sexual behaviour.

Also, this disease is a unique spread through sexual

contact and contact with infected blood. Prevention

of the spread of the virus can be overcome if sexual

behaviour that is faithful to each other can be

maintained. But unfortunately, there are still many

sexual behaviours that change partners.

The spread of AIDS can also occur through the

blood. Blood that has been infected when it is

transfused to healthy people will automatically be

infected. The use of unsterile syringes can also be an

effective medium in the spread of this disease.

Another way is to occur when infected blood hits a

healthy person's wound. So the stigma that arises is

people with HIV / AIDS are those who have

unhealthy and careless sexual relations. Also, the

perpetrators of drug abuse through injection media.

Even though there are many other ways to make

people infected with HIV / AIDS, one of them is

blood transfusion.

Not surprisingly, women with HIV / AIDS get

stigma as naughty women who have sexual relations

carelessly and even changing partners. This label is

very detrimental to women who may be infected with

a deadly virus, and the cure is not yet because of these

methods but transmitted by her husband who is

unfaithful and changing partners without the wife

knowing.

This fact is very detrimental to women who are

loyal but contracting this disease. They are still

considered harmful by society. If the one affected by

the disease is a female sex worker, it might be

announced because her sexual behaviour has been

unhealthy and can be at risk of contracting various

other venereal diseases. People sometimes generalize

all women who suffer from this disease; they always

just label bad or bad women to all sufferers. It could

also be because they are stigmatized as drug users and

others.

The stigma of PLWHA causes a significant

obstacle to PLWHA who want to access treatment,

care, education, and information to prevent HIV

transmission. This stigma develops because of the

spread of the disease through sexual contact or the use

of unsterile syringes. So usually women who are

infected with this disease are female sex workers or

women who use drugs with a syringe media.

5 CONCLUSIONS AND

SUGGESTIONS

5.1 Conclusion

This disease that has no cure yet needs to be continued

with socialization regarding the spread of the virus

and its prevention, so that people can anticipate it.

Stigma can still occur due to the lack of useful

information about this disease / Besides that, the

community is continuously educating so that the

stigmatization of women with HIV / AIDS is reduced

and it is not recognized that women with HIV / AIDS

are naughty and bad women.

5.2 Suggestion

An educational model that is suitable for every

community needs to be done so that the

stigmatization of women with HIV / AIDS decreases

or even disappears.

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