Investigating the contributing factors to HIV/AIDS infection from the perspective of HIV-infected patients

Background: People with HIV have always faced stigma and discrimination. Given the numerous papers that have addressed the psychological and social risk factors in spreading HIV, a pressing question is whether individuals' mere careless and behavioural flaws can still account for the spread of HIV. Barriers and opposing politic made a hard position for HIV and sex education in Iran. Methods: The present study investigated the causes of contracting HIV/AIDS from the perspective of HIV-infected patients. To accomplish this, 150 patients referring to the voluntary counseling and testing Center, Shiraz were convenient selected based on the convenient sampling method and responded to a researcher-made questionnaire From June to August 2019. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics (mean, SD, frequency tables) and inferential statistics (chi-square). Results: Results revealed that the main cause of HIV infection amongst males was the injection of narcotics, and in the females it was sexual intercourse with an infected individual. Meanwhile, 57% of the females and 66% of the males blamed themselves for contracting and transmitting the disease. The patients stated that if they could return to pre-infection period, they would use one of the following ways to prevent the disease: (a) they would pay attention to hygienic/sanitary principles; (b) they would not get married; and (c) they would prevent drug addiction. Also only 44% of the individuals had successful siblings (those who were neither addicts nor HIV/AIDS-infected individuals), which was an observation that emphasizes on the epidemic of high-risk behaviors in the patients' families. Conclusions: According to participants' statements collected in our study, weakness in governmental public health education, along with family-related and individual factors, are important causes of HIV spread

Automated summary

The main causes of HIV infection were found to be drug injection for males and sexual intercourse with an infected individual for females. Patients felt responsible for contracting and transmitting the disease, and there was a high prevalence of high-risk behaviors within families, emphasizing the need for intervention.