Implications for behavioural change in rural Malawi of popular understandings of the epidemiology of AIDS

CCPR-2008-045

Abstract

For people to change their sexual behaviour in response to the fear of contracting (or transmitting) AIDS they must believe that such change will protect them (or others) from infection. Thus, the effectiveness of interventions against a generalized AIDS epidemic depends at least in part on the accuracy of popular understandings of the epidemiology of AIDS. We draw on spontaneous conversations about aspects of HIV and AIDS that were recorded verbatim as part of a panel study conducted in rural Malawi, which has a severe and longstanding AIDS epidemic, to assess local understandings of the epidemiology of AIDS in light of scientific knowledge. The investigation shows that whereas rural Malawians well understand many salient aspects of AIDS epidemiology
they adhere strongly to the erroneous belief that if one member of a couple is HIVpositive then the other spouse must be infected as well. Combating this belief would seem to be a necessary pre-condition to attracting couples to seek voluntary counselling and testing.