Abstract
To date, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections remain a global public health issue. While there remains no cure, recent biomedical advances have turned HIV from an acute infection into a manageable, chronic health condition. This transformation has enabled people living with HIV (PLHIV) to lead long, healthy lives. Pivotal to this transformation was the role of the social sciences. The social sciences discipline has generated valuable insights into the behavioral, social, cultural, and political factors that impact the development and implementation of HIV programs and interventions. This chapter will explicate the interpretative and critical role of the social sciences in understanding HIV/AIDS and the ways in which the social sciences will continue to impact this global epidemic. The chapter will begin with a short history of HIV/AIDS and its current global trajectory since it was first detected in the 1980s. Subsequent discussions will center around the issues arising from the biomedicalization of HIV/AIDS and illustrate the ways in which the social sciences have deepened the impact of HIV/AIDS work. These will include how the social sciences have shed light on the facilitators and barriers of HIV prevention, uncovered insights into the lived experiences of PLHIV and HIV care, and interrogated the structural impediments and sociopolitical discourses that influence the local and global ideologies for this chronic health condition. The chapter will close with the authors’ reflections regarding the ways in which the social sciences can continue to value-add to HIV/AIDS work in the future.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abdool Karim Q (2013) The global HIV epidemic: current status and challenges. Curr HIV/AIDS Rep 10:111–112
Airhihenbuwa CO, Ford CL, Iwelunmor JI (2014) Why culture matters in health interventions: lessons from HIV/AIDS stigma and NCDs. Health Educ Behav 41:78–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198113487199
Altice F, Evuarherhe O, Shina S et al (2019) Adherence to HIV treatment regimens: systematic literature review and meta-analysis. Patient Prefer Adherence 13:475. https://doi.org/10.2147/PPA.S192735
Atuk T (2020) Pathopolitics: pathologies and biopolitics of PrEP. Front Sociol 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.00053
Auerbach JD, Hoppe TA (2015) Beyond “‘getting drugs into bodies’”: social science perspectives on pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV. J Int AIDS Soc 18:1–5
Barré-Sinoussi F, Abdool Karim SS, Albert J et al (2018) Expert consensus statement on the science of HIV in the context of criminal law. J Int AIDS Soc 5:e473–e473. https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25161
Baumgartner LM, Niemi E (2013) The perceived effect of HIV/AIDS on other identities. Qual Rep 18:1–23
Braun V (2013) “Proper sex without annoying things”: anti-condom discourse and the “nature” of (hetero)sex. Sexualities 16:361–382. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460713479752
Bury M (1982) Chronic illness as biographical disruption. Soc Health Illn 4:167–182
Cáceres CF, O’Reilly KR, Mayer KH, Baggaley R (2015) PrEP implementation: moving from trials to policy and practice. J Int AIDS Soc 18:1–4. https://doi.org/10.7448/IAS.18.4.20222
Calabrese SK, Underhill K (2015) How stigma surrounding the use of HIV preexposure prophylaxis undermines prevention and pleasure: A call to destigmatize “truvada whores”. Am J Public Health 105:1960–1964
Cameron E (2021) Forty years of AIDS: equality remains central to quelling a still-potent epidemic. In: UNAIDS Criminalisation of HIV Transmission. https://www.unaids.org/en/keywords/criminalization-hiv-transmission. Accessed 30 June 2022
Campbell CK (2021) Structural and intersectional biographical disruption: the case of HIV disclosure among a sample of black gay and bisexual men. Soc Sci Med 280:114046. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114046
Castro A (2005) Adherence to antiretroviral therapy: merging the clinical and social course of AIDS. PLoS Med 2:e338. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020338
Charmaz K (1995) The body, identity, and self: adapting to impairment. Sociol Q 36:657–680. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4121346
Clarke AE, Shim JK, Mamo L et al (2003) Biomedicalization: Technoscientific transformations of health, illness, and U.S. biomedicine. Am Sociol Rev 68:161–194. https://doi.org/10.2307/1519765
Cormier McSwiggin C (2017) Moral adherence: HIV treatment, undetectability, and stigmatized viral loads among Haitians in South Florida. Med Anthropol 36:714–728. https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2017.1361946
Crawford AM (1996) Stigma associated with AIDS: a meta-analysis. J Appl Soc Psychol 26:398–416
Dilmitis S, Edwards O, Hull B et al (2012) Language, identity and HIV: why do we keep talking about the responsible and responsive use of language? Language matters. J Int AIDS Soc 15:17990. https://doi.org/10.7448/IAS.15.4.17990
Farmer P (2004) An anthropology of structural violence. Curr Anthropol 45:305–325. https://doi.org/10.1086/382250
Ford N, Vitoria M, Hirnschall G, Doherty M (2013) Getting to zero HIV deaths: progress, challenges and ways forward. J Int AIDS Soc 16:18927
Goffman E (2009) Stigma: notes on the management of spoiled identity. Simon and Schuster, New York
Herrick C, Bell K (2022) Concepts, disciplines and politics: on ‘structural violence’ and the ‘social determinants of health’. Critical Public Health 32:295–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2020.1810637
Hlabangane N (2014) From object to subject: deconstructing anthropology and HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Crit Anthropol 34:174–203. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X13519274
Ho LP, Goh ECL (2017) How HIV patients construct liveable identities in a shame based culture: the case of Singapore. Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being 12:1–14
Ho LPP, Goh ECL (2020) “I have HIV but I’m not the HIV”–the experiences of heterosexual Chinese men living with HIV in Singapore. AIDS Care 32:296–301
Ho D, Tan R, Yang D (2021) Do HIV non-disclosure Laws in Singapore still make sense today? Rice Media Company. https://www.ricemedia.co/hiv-non-disclosure-laws-in-singapore. Accessed 30 June 2022
Holt M, Stephenson N (2006) Living with HIV and negotiating psychological discourse. Health (London) 10:211–231. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459306061789
Hoots BE, Finlayson TJ, Wejnert C et al (2015) Early linkage to HIV care and antiretroviral treatment among men who have sex with men—20 cities, United States, 2008 and 2011. PLoS One 10:e0132962
Imrie J, Elford J, Kippax S, Hart GJ (2007) Biomedical HIV prevention-and social science. Lancet 370:10–11
Jones L, Collins L (2020) PrEP in the press: a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of how users of HIV-prevention treatment are represented in British newspapers. J Lang Sex 9:202–225. https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.20002.jon
Kippax S (2012) Effective HIV prevention: the indispensable role of social science. J Int AIDS Soc 15:17357
Kippax S, Stephenson N (2012) Beyond the distinction between biomedical and social dimensions of HIV prevention through the lens of a social public health. Am J Public Health 102:789–799
Kippax S, Stephenson N, Parker RG, Aggleton P (2013) Between individual agency and structure in HIV prevention: understanding the middle ground of social practice. Am J Public Health 103:1367–1375
Levy ME, Wilton L, Phillips G et al (2014) Understanding structural barriers to accessing HIV testing and prevention services among black men who have sex with men (BMSM) in the United States. AIDS Behav 18:972–996
Liamputtong P, Haritavorn N, Kiatying-Angsulee N (2012) Living positively: the experiences of thai women living with HIV/AIDS in Central Thailand. Qual Health Res 22:441–451
Liamputtong P, Haritavorn N, Kiatying-Angsulee N (2015) Local discourse on antiretrovirals and the lived experience of women living with HIV/AIDS in Thailand. Qual Health Res 25:253–263
Lubkin IM, Larsen PD (2006) Chronic illness: impact and interventions. Jones & Bartlett Learning
Lupton D (1994) The condom in the age of AIDS: newly respectable or still a dirty word? A discourse analysis. Qual Health Res 4:304–320
Ma Q, Tso LS, Rich ZC et al (2016) Barriers and facilitators of interventions for improving antiretroviral therapy adherence: a systematic review of global qualitative evidence. J Int AIDS Soc 19:1–13
Mak WWS, Mo PKH, Cheung RYM et al (2006) Comparative stigma of HIV/AIDS, SARS, and tuberculosis in Hong Kong. Soc Sci Med 63:1912–1922
Mattes D (2014) Caught in transition: the struggle to live a ‘normal’ life with HIV in Tanzania. Med Anthropol 33:270–287
McCall B (2018) Scientific evidence against HIV criminalisation. World report. The Lancet 392:543–544
McClelland A, French M, Mykhalovskiy E et al (2017) The harms of HIV criminalization: Responding to the “association of HIV diagnosis rates and laws criminalizing HIV exposure in the United States”. AIDS 31:1899–1900
Moyer E, Hardon A (2014) A disease unlike any other? Why HIV remains exceptional in the age of treatment. Med Anthropol 33:263–269
Mykhalovskiy E, Frohlich KL, Poland B et al (2019) Critical social science with public health: Agonism, critique and engagement. Crit Public Health 29:522–533
Nydegger LA, Dickson-Gomez J, Ko TK (2021) Structural and syndemic barriers to PrEP adoption among black women at high risk for HIV: a qualitative exploration. Cult Health Sex 23:659–673. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2020.1720297
Nyatsanza T, Wood L (2017) Problematizing official narratives of HIV and AIDS education in Scotland and Zimbabwe. SAHARA J Soc Aspects HIV/AIDS 14:185–192. https://doi.org/10.1080/17290376.2017.1394908
Persson A (2013) Non/infectious corporealities: Tensions in the biomedical era of “HIV normalisation”. Sociol Health Illn 35:1065–1079. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12023
Persson A, Race K, Wakeford E (2003) HIV health in context: negotiating medical technology and lived experience. Health 7:397–415
Persson A, Newman CE, Hopwood M et al (2014) No ordinary mainstream illness: how HIV doctors perceive the virus. Qual Health Res 24:6–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732313514139
Pett W (2018) Travel restrictions for people with HIV. AIDS Map. https://www.aidsmap.com/about-hiv/travel-restrictions-people-hiv. Accessed on 30 June 2022
Pfeiffer J, Nichter M (2008) What can critical medical anthropology contribute to global health?: a health systems perspective. Med Anthropol Q 22:410–415. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1387.2008.00041.x
Rhodes T, Singer M, Bourgois P et al (2005) The social structural production of HIV risk among injecting drug users. Soc Sci Med 61:1026–1044
Richardson FC, Fowers BJ (1998) Interpretive social science: an overview. Am Behav Sci 41:465–495
Russell S, Seeley J, Ezati E et al (2007) Coming back from the dead: living with HIV as a chronic condition in rural Africa. Health Policy Plan 22:344–347
Rzeszutek M, Gruszczyńska E, Pięta M, Malinowska P (2021) HIV/AIDS stigma and psychological Well-being after 40 years of HIV/AIDS: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Psychotraumatol 12:1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1990527
Schoepf BG (2001) International AIDS research in anthropology: taking a critical perspective on the crisis. Annu Rev Anthropol 30:335–361
Schofield T (2007) Health inequity and its social determinants: a sociological commentary. Health Sociol Rev 16:105–114. https://doi.org/10.5172/hesr.2007.16.2.105
Seale C (2008) Mapping the field of medical sociology: a comparative analysis of journals. Soc Health Illn 30:677–695
Siegel K, Lekas H-M (2002) AIDS as a chronic illness: psychosocial implications. AIDS 16:S69–S76
Siu GE, Seeley J, Wight D (2014) ‘Dented’and’resuscitated’masculinities: the impact of HIV diagnosis and/or enrolment on antiretroviral treatment on masculine identities in rural eastern Uganda. SAHARA: J Soc Aspects HIV/AIDS Res 11:211–221
Smith JH, Whiteside A (2010) The history of AIDS exceptionalism. J Int AIDS Soc 13:47
Smith AKJ, Haire B, Newman CE, Holt M (2021) Challenges of providing HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis across Australian clinics: qualitative insights of clinicians. Sex Health 18:187–194. https://doi.org/10.1071/SH20208
Smith AKJ, Newman CE, Haire B, Holt M (2022) Prescribing as affective clinical practice: transformations in sexual health consultations through HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis. Soc Health Illn 44:1–19
Snow DA, Anderson L (1987) Identity work among the homeless: the verbal construction and avowal of personal identities. Am J Sociol 92:1336–1371
Stevens DR, Vrana CJ, Dlin RE, Korte JE (2018) A global review of HIV self-testing: themes and implications. AIDS Behav 22:497–512
Tan RKJ, Kaur N, Kumar PA et al (2020) Clinics as spaces of costly disclosure: HIV/STI testing and anticipated stigma among gay, bisexual and queer men. Cult Health Sex 22:307–320. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2019.1596313
Tan RKJ, Lim JM, Chan JKW (2021a) Is “undetectable= Untransmissible” good public health messaging? AMA J Ethics 23:418–422
Tan Y-R, Kaur N, Ye AJ et al (2021b) Perceptions of an HIV self-testing intervention and its potential role in addressing the barriers to HIV testing among at-risk heterosexual men: a qualitative analysis. Sex Transm Infect 97:514–520
The Lancet HIV (2018) HIV criminalisation is bad policy based on bad science. Lancet HIV 5:e473
The Lancet HIV (2021) Time to end discriminatory laws against people with HIV. Lancet HIV, vol 8, p e729
Thoits PA (1986) Multiple identities: examining gender and marital status differences in distress. Am Sociol Rev 51:259–272
Treichler PA (1987) AIDS, homophobia and biomedical discourse: an epidemic of signification. Cult Stud 1:263–305
UNAIDS (2020) UNAIDS data 2020. UNAIDS Publications. https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/documents/2020/unaids-data. Accessed on 30 June 2022
UNAIDS (2021) HIV criminalization – human rights fact sheet series 2021. UNAIDS Publications. https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/documents/2021/01-hiv-human-rights-factsheet-criminalization#:~:text=The%202021%2D2026%20Global%20AIDS,inequalities%20and%20ultimately%20ending%20AIDS. Accessed 30 June 2022
Vaughan E, Power M (2021) The discursive construction of HIV stigma in Irish print media. Health (United Kingdom). https://doi.org/10.1177/13634593211038525
Walker L (2019) ‘There’s no pill to help you deal with the guilt and shame’: contemporary experiences of HIV in the United Kingdom. Health 23:97–113
Webb R (2020) HIV criminalisation Laws around the world. AIDS Map. https://www.aidsmap.com/about-hiv/hiv-criminalisation-laws-around-world. Accessed 30 June 2022
World Health Organisation (2021a) HIV/AIDS – key facts. Fact sheets regarding HIV/AIDS. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hiv-aids. Accessed 30 June 2022
World Health Organisation (2021b) Key facts and latest estimates on the global HIV epidemic – 2020. HIV Data and Statistics. https://www.who.int/teams/global-hiv-hepatitis-and-stis-programmes/hiv/strategic-information/hiv-data-and-statistics. Accessed 30 June 2022
Zissette S, Watt MH, Prose NS et al (2016) “If you don’t take a stand for your life, who will help you?”: Men’s engagement in HIV care in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Psychol Men Masculinity 17:265
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Bin Ibrahim, M.A., Ho, L.P. (2023). From Acute Infection to Chronic Health Condition: The Role of the Social Sciences on the HIV/AIDS Global Epidemic. In: Liamputtong, P. (eds) Handbook of Social Sciences and Global Public Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96778-9_88-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96778-9_88-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-96778-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-96778-9
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
From Acute Infection to Chronic Health Condition: The Role of the Social Sciences on the HIV/AIDS Global Epidemic- Published:
- 25 March 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96778-9_88-2
-
Original
From Acute Infection to Chronic Health Condition: The Role of the Social Sciences on the HIV/AIDS Global Epidemic- Published:
- 16 February 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96778-9_88-1