Abstract

This research aims to identify challenges that face women living with HIV in Upper Egypt in order to help policy makers and different stakeholders to overcome those challenges. Interviews with women living with HIV from different governorates in Upper Egypt were conducted. In addition, this research included interviews with national AIDS program officials and NGOs managers to obtain different perspectives about the condition of women living with HIV. Women represent half of people living with HIV around the world. The burden of disease on women is even more challenging in many countries due to gender inequality. The effect of culture in Upper Egypt on women living with HIV was an added value to this research as there is shortage in researches that tackled this problem in this particular area in Egypt. Despite efforts to fight HIV in Egypt and to reduce stigma and discrimination, women living with HIV in Upper Egypt face many challenges. What are those challenges and how can Egypt overcome them? Main findings included that women living with HIV in Upper Egypt need a stigma free reproductive health services. They need to disclose about their illness without fear of stigma. Women face many difficulties to access reproductive health services upon disclosure about their status. Women might transfer the virus to their children due to mismanagement of their cases or lack of proper services in health care provision during child birth. Moreover, there is a shortage in the services provided for PLHIV in Upper Egypt including medications’ distributing centers and laboratory tests. Finally, there is a pressing social stigma against PLHIV which results in low utilization of testing services.

Department

Public Policy & Administration Department

Degree Name

MA in Public Administration

Graduation Date

6-1-2015

Submission Date

May 2015

First Advisor

Ali, Hamid

Committee Member 1

Amin, Khaled

Committee Member 2

Bhuiyan, Shahjahan

Extent

62 p.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Library of Congress Subject Heading 1

HIV antibodies -- Egypt.

Library of Congress Subject Heading 2

Women -- Egypt -- Social conditions.

Rights

The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval

Approval has been obtained for this item

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