Research |
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| Main Findings |
- Little is known about the relationship between disability and HIV & AIDS or their impact on disabled men and women, particularly in the developing world – only a small number of studies have previously been conducted
- Disabled women and men in Mozambique are at least as vulnerable to HIV & AIDS as the general population (national HIV prevalence is at least 16.2% among those aged 15-49 years). Girls and women especially face multiple layers of vulnerability as, for instance, victims of sexual violence unable to uphold their rights
- HIV & AIDS awareness is extremely low among disabled people in Mozambique, and is significantly lower than among the general population
- Despite this, current national HIV & AIDS policy documents make no reference at all to disability or disabled people, let alone the gender considerations. Moreover, agencies providing HIV & AIDS services, mostly unaware that the pandemic equally affects disabled people, make no provisions to cater for disabled people’s special needs. This applies in the area of prevention as well as treatment
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| Research and Analysis Highlights |
- Such is the stigma that attaches to disability in Mozambique, many disabled people were found not to be willing to risk exposure to a secondary stigma that would result from HIV positive status. This disincentive to HIV testing means that it is impossible to know exactly the prevalence of HIV & AIDS among disabled people. This is compounded by the fact that disabled people can be “invisible” in communities and Mozambique’s disabled population is not known
- A very striking aspect of the research was that it had not entered the thinking of many HIV and AIDS service organisations – even substantial agencies with a long track record in the field – that the pandemic does affect disabled people. This may be seen as a symptom of disabled people’s general marginalisation, but these organisations readily acknowledged this omission as requiring rectification
- The research also pointed out clearly the role played by poverty. Not only has a detailed investigation of disability and HIV & AIDS highlighted the link between disability and poverty but also disabled people’s poverty in Mozambique has been found to increase their vulnerability to HIV & AIDS as it is one of the main reasons why they do not have access to prevention programmes and materials or treatment. Again, it is important to stress the gender dimension: the inferior socio-economic status of girls and women underlies their heightened vulnerability
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