ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on research carried out amongst African women living with Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in London. It aims to reveal the insecurities that they face not only because of their HIV positive status, but because of the many interlinked discriminations and difficulties which compound their illness. Physiological factors that influence enhanced female susceptibility to HIV include larger amounts of virus being transmitted during ejaculation in semen than are passed in vaginal fluids, and, and longer contact times for infected fluid in the vagina than in the male urethra. A variety of cultural and social factors may impinge on the medical management of HIV infection in African and other migrant groups. African women dealing with HIV in London have to manage a multiplicity of challenges stemming from their position as migrants, as women and as people with HIV infection Each factors alone has its particular problems with but when combined together the difficulties rise exponentially.
