Emergenza AIDS: pregiudizi e stereotipi verso le donne africane sub-sahariane

The paper aims to investigate the phenomenon of AIDS, in relation to\r\nthe alarming spread of infections among African women and of prejudices\r\nagainst them due to their HIV positivity. The topic of AIDS, despite\r\nthe important progresses made by preventive medicine and therapy,\r\ncontinues to rise social preoccupation, because HIV positive status\r\nis a stigmatizing condition, related to race, gender and sexual orientation.\r\nIn addition to international literature and global reports, the essay\r\nfocuses on the cultural negative representation of the woman infected\r\nby HIV virus among African people. Then it shows some evidence\r\nfrom 9 interviews administrated to doctors, volunteers and other\r\npeople in Brescia and Lombardy, who work with African immigrant\r\nwomen with HIV. The last part of the paper confirms that the stigma of\r\nHIV-positive person is higher for the target of the study, because of cultural,\r\npolitical and religious factors, stemming from the women considered\r\ninferior to men. Thus many women are afraid to reveal their HIV-positive status (especially in a foreign country), so they self-isolate\r\nand sometimes do not continue the treatment.