Browsing by Author "Danielle Denardo"

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    Antiretroviral therapy and aging as resources for managing and resisting HIV-related stigma in rural South Africa
    (2022-12) Danielle Denardo; Sanyu A. Mojolab; Enid Schatzc; F. Xavier Gómez-Olivé
    The widespread roll-out of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Africa has contributed to a large population of adults aging with HIV. However, little is known about how HIV-related stigma interacts with aging in the ART era. This study uses in-depth interviews with middle-aged and older South Africans living with HIV to explore stigma-related experiences and response strategies. Participants describe a persistence of stigma which requires the deployment of a range of common and age-based stigma management and resistance strategies. We find that participants minimize their exposure to stigma through selective disclosure of their HIV status; neutralize HIV-related stigma through comparisons to chronic illnesses common among older adults, and deflect stigma through asserting an ART-adherent identity and othering younger non-adherent adults. Overall, our study highlights the roles of ART and aging as resources for managing and resisting HIV-related stigma.
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    THE END OF AIDS? HIV AND THE NEW LANDSCAPE OF ILLNESS IN RURAL SOUTH AFRICA
    (2022-01) Sanyu A. Mojola; Nicole Angotti; Danielle Denardo; Enid Schatz; F. Xavier Gómez Olivé5
    The global HIV/AIDS scientific community has begun to hail the dawn of “the End of AIDS” with widespread anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and dramatic declines in AIDS-related mortality. Drawing on community focus groups and in-depth individual interviews conducted in rural South Africa, we examine the complex unfolding of the end of AIDS in a hard-hit setting. We find that while widespread ART has led to declines in AIDS-related deaths, stigma persists and is now freshly motivated. We argue that the shifting landscape of illness in the community has produced a new interpretive lens through which to view living with HIV and dying from AIDS. Most adults have one or more chronic illnesses, and ART-managed HIV is now considered a preferred diagnosis because it is seen as easier to manage, more responsive to medication, and less dangerous compared to diseases like cancer, hypertension and diabetes. Viewed through this comparative lens, dying from AIDS elicits stigmatizing individual blame. We find that blame persists despite community acknowledgement of structural barriers to ART adherence. Setting the ending of AIDS within its wider health context sheds light on the complexities of the epidemiological and health transitions underway in much of the developing world.