Abstract:
In many developing countries, stigma and discrimination together
pose most significant challenges towards stemming the spread of HIV/
AIDS. Although Lesotho has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence
in the world, there is little or no research about how people living with
HIV/AIDS or are suspected of living with HIV/ AIDS are perceived
and treated. The paper utilised data from the Lesotho 2000 End Decade
Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey and the 2004 Lesotho Demographic
and Health Survey to address the three fold primary objective of the
paper. The paper first compared attitudes of females aged 15-24
towards people who are HIV positive or are suspected of being HIV
positive between 2000 and 2004. Secondly it assessed whether
knowledge about transmission of and protection against HIV/AIDS
has improved overtime. Lastly it examined the factors that are
associated with HIV/AIDS-related discrimination. Using both
descriptive and multivariate logistic regression to analyse the data, the
findings of the paper indicate that HIV/AIDS-related discrimination
declined by 12 percent overtime, knowledge about means of
transmission of and protection against HIV/AIDS increased by 20
percent, while knowledge of means of transmission and protection
against HIV/AIDS translated into reduced levels of HIV/AIDSrelated
discrimination. Multivariate analysis confirmed that
HIV/AIDS-related discrimination had declined between 2000 and
2004 while education was identified as one of the most important
factors associated with HIV/ AIDS-related discrimination. The
conclusion of the paper is that efforts to educate the public about
HIV/AIDS are transforming the attitudes of the general population
towards people who are HIV positive or are suspected of being HIV
positive.
