Psychosocial Perspective of People Living with HIV/AIDS in India

One of the most major challenges the healthcare system faces till date is the HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus and AIDS or the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. Being a burden on the population’s health, it causes social and economic problems for individuals and their families and communities in many countries (Trapero-Bertran & Oliva-Moreno, 2014). Many of the HIV patients also face social problems such as stigma, poverty, depression and substance abuse that can affect their quality of life (Basavaraj, Navya& Rashmi, 2010). Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, almost 78 million people are infected with the virus and 39 million people have died because of the epidemic (Herrman, Shekhar & Rob, 2005). At the end of 2014, it is estimated that about 36.9 million people were living with HIV and 1.2 million people have died because of AIDS (Herrman et al., 2005). There is, however, a considerable difficulty in ascertaining the actual number of people who are affected with the virus as the high risk group people are either reluctant to undergo testing or reluctant to disclose their diagnosis. This is because of various factors like societal factors as well as the factors that do not allow for a person to undergo testing (Das & Leibowitz, 2010). The general challenges of the people living with HIV/AIDS are the steadily declining quality of life, fear of death, coping with uncertainty and the additional challenge of facing the stigma attached with the disease and specifically their mental health (Remien&Rabkin, 2001).