“When people get open about HIV, it’s easier to save others” : Herausforderungen und Lösungswege in der HIV-Primärprävention und Aids-Versorgung bei Sub-Sahara Migrationsgemeinschaften in der Schweiz

Author(s) : Iren Bischofberger Lerch

Source : http://edoc.unibas.ch/diss/DissB_8000

Abstract:

“Although Sub-Sahara migrants had been overrepresented in Swiss HIV prevalene statistics in the late 1980s already, they had been hardly recognized in prevention interventions and publications. Only when the figures raised high in the late 1990s, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) mandated a rapid assessment intervention plan and based on its recommendations commissioned a pilot intervention project for outreach peer education, called AFRIMEDIA, executed jointly by Swiss Red Cross and Swiss Tropical Institute between fall 2002 und spring 2006. This late recognition of Sub-Sahara migrants is surprising, since the Swiss HIV/AIDS strategy has always been innovative and based on a learning strategy ? in contrast to a control strategy ? in order to manage an irradicable virus in the contemporary society. Thus, by silencing the magnitude of the problem, open and public discussion was rather inhibited instead of enhanced. This qualitative study is affiliated with the AFRIMEDIA project. The study aims to examine the process of peer education in order to contribute to a better understanding and improvement of peer education targeting Sub-Sahara migrants in Switzerland. Due to the high HIV prevalence, HIV-infected African migrants were also included in the study in order to increase the understanding of their life worlds. These insights are particularly relevant for clinicians working with AIDS patients from Sub-Saharan Africa. This study also aimed at clarifying methodological issues when studying marginalized populations involved in sensitive research topics.”