HIV/AIDS and persons with disabilities

Abstract

Despite the severity of the HIV epidemic worldwide, and particularly in southern Africa, persons with disabilities have until recently been generally excluded from consideration in HIV prevention campaigns. This chapter outlines the situation with regard to HIV/AIDS as it affects persons with disabilities. The chapter will begin by first providing an outline of the experience and prevalence of disability in South Africa, highlighting how little is known about how HIV affects persons with disabilities in South Africa. An outline of some of the international literature, including a recent global survey on HIV/AIDS and disability, will be presented. With the background of findings from international studies, we shall then look at the issue of HIV/AIDS as it affects persons with disabilities in South Africa, with reference to recent research in this area. The chapter will also discuss and highlight some of the current contested issues involved with regard to HIV/AIDS as a disability and the disability grant. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.