AWARENESS OF STIGMA AND DISCRIMINATION ASSOCIATED WITH HIV INFECTION AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS

HIV infection is a disease accompanied by a number of social problems, the most important among them are stigmatization and discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS. Working experience shows that students do not fully distinguish the definition of "stigma", "discrimination", often due to lack of awareness they stigmatize people living with HIV. The aim was to determine the perception and knowledge among medical students of senior courses of medical and dental faculties of SE "Dnipropetrovsk Medical Academy of Health Ministry of Ukraine" about the concept of "stigma" and "discrimination" against HIV-infected people before and after the learning the cycle of "Infectious diseases" and the elective course "Current issues of HIV infection." With simple randomization method we have selected several groups of students from different faculties. Among the students anonymous questionnaires were implied. The questionnaire included 15 points that reflected the awareness of medical students on the concepts of "stigma" and "discrimination". Analysis of the obtained responses showed the main attitudes of modern medical students. So, the level of awareness towards some aspects of the concepts of "stigma" and "discrimination" before the course at the department was not high, namely 54% correct answers among students of dental faculties and 55% among the medical faculty. After the cycle of "Infectious diseases" and elective course "Current issues of HIV infection" repeated questioning was performed. Thus, all the surveyed indicators significantly improved, for example, the right answers were provided by 76% of students of dental faculty and 82% of medical faculty. Some questions were not answered correctly by the students as they did not know all the laws and regulations which regulate relations with HIV-infected patients. Considering the responses in detail, we see that the level of knowledge of the students in relation to stigma and discrimination against HIV-infected people was linked to the personal attitude of students to them. Even after classes among students, as well as in society in general, negative attitude towards people living with HIV is prevalent. Some students present a stable personal opinion, which is difficult to change. Most students believe that it is permissible to test patients for HIV without consent, such as in urgent states, arguing that they can more thoroughly protect themselves as a doctor. At least, according to the regulations, each patient should be considered as potentially HIV-infected, so you need to adhere to universal safety rules in the workplace. Also, regarding the question "to called HIV-positive person "AIDS-carrier"" before the course almost all the students addressed wrongly, as they regarded this a contempt of discrimination. The obtained data should further consider the organization of lectures, practical classes and self-performed work of students. We believe that students performance can be improved by increasing the time of practical training, and introducing medical students to communicate with HIV-infected persons during these sessions and paying more attention to the issue at future internship. Also, it is needed to improve awareness of the existence of associations of people living with HIV, because large stigma and discrimination is a violation of human rights.