The Capacity Project announces the publication of Technical Brief 13: HIV Care for Health Workers: Perceptions and Needs.

This study illustrates the profound impact that HIV has on the health workforce in Swaziland, with over 74% of health workers interviewed reporting having personally known a colleague who is either HIV positive or must care for a family member who is positive.Respondents offered new and previously undocumented insights into the special stigma that surrounds HIV-infected health workers, in particular self-stigmatization. Because of the significance of HIV/AIDS in this cultural context, a core group of nurses from the Swaziland Nursing Association (SNA) implemented a participatory study in collaboration with the Southern Africa Human Capacity Development Coalition (SAHCD), the Swaziland Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Capacity Project. Health workers' responses also indicate that HIV services are needed and desired, but should be delivered so that they are accessible, private, confidential, not specific to HIV and well understood by health workers.

To read more about this study’s results and policy implications, please view the complete version here.

December 2008