ABSTRACT
The current era of global population movement, together with longstanding historical and political relationships between many nations in Africa and those in Western Europe means that more people are travelling to and from countries with high rates of HIV infection than ever before. This in turn is influencing the epidemiology of HIV infection and care in Europe (Hamers and Downs 2004). In England, the prevalence of diagnosed HIV in communities of black African origin is estimated to be 3.7 per cent compared to 0.09 per cent among the white population. Data from the Health Protection Agency (2008) suggest that a majority of these infections are in heterosexuals and have mainly been acquired in countries in Africa. In total, 24,800 people born in sub-Saharan Africa were living with HIV in the UK in 2006. Many others remained undiagnosed and unaware of their infection (UK Collaborative Group for HIV and STI Surveillance 2007). Despite these statistics, the body of knowledge about the ways that HIV affects
the lives of Africans in the UK diasporas remains limited. Yet such understandings are of fundamental importance for the successful design and implementation of health care responses for HIV prevention, diagnosis and treatment. This chapter examines some of the experiences facing HIV-positive African migrants seeking treatment and care in the UK. A number of shared experiences have been reported amongst members of this group, particularly regarding treatment access. However, after examining the wider context within which migrants can seek HIV treatment, the chapter also draws out some of the differences in the lived experiences faced by (self-defined) heterosexual women, heterosexual men and gay/bisexual men in accessing care and building a life within the UK. The chapter is informed by current literature and by data obtained from four
research studies in which the author has been involved over the past decade in specialist HIV clinical services in London. One was a large-scale quantitative survey (cf. Elford et al. 2006), and three were qualitative projects (cf. Anderson and Doyal 2004; Doyal and Anderson 2005; Doyal et al. 2005; Paparini et al. 2008). Access to HIV patient populations was enabled by the author’s work as a clinician in this field.
