“As Soon as People See You Cough, They Say You Have the Disease”

This chapter introduces the concept of stigma and situate it within health and illness research, exploring some key literature that explores how stigma has shaped societies’ responses to public health emergencies in times of epidemics and pandemics. It reviews the example of Ebola in West Africa to draw comparisons around how stigma shapes societal responses to these emergencies, including in the current pandemic. The chapter describes some examples of the impact of stigma on mental health, drawing on the Great Influenza pandemic as it affected Europe and North America and the SARS epidemic as it affected Asia, and link these to the literature suggesting rising mental health issues in the present pandemic. It presents the case study of Kenya, looking at drivers of stigma and how it has shaped health-seeking behaviors in the context of COVID-19 containment measures.