ABSTRACT

Public health challenges such as leprosy, AIDS, tuberculosis, and plague have implicitly assumed stigmatization of patients. A frequent response has been the isolation of patients (Krishnatray & Melkote, 1998). Thus, for persons infected with these diseases it is both a medical and a social problem. The publicity given to HIV/AIDS patients in the last fifteen years has had the positive effect of systematically examining stigmatization of the disease and persons affected by it. Public communication campaigns have addressed issues of stigmatization and discrimination and ways to destigmatize affected individuals (Pryor & Reeder, 1993).