Abstract

CASTRO, Arachu  and  FARMER, Paul. El Sida y la violencia estructural: La culpabilización de la víctima. Cuad. antropol. soc. [online]. 2003, n.17, pp.29-47. ISSN 1850-275X.

In this paper we analyze how some of the main publications prepared by international health organizations and research teams tend, all too often, to blame the HIV patient for suffering the disease. These documents do not take into account that, in the great majority of cases, HIV/AIDS is caused by structural violence, which make difficult the development of individual and collective agency. We argue that some health policies and recommendations reproduce the ideology of blaming the victim, which places the cause of suffering and the poverty of people living with HIV on their own lack of agency, and not on social, political, and historical forces that are inescapably beyond their control.

Keywords : HIV/AIDS; Structural violence; Poverty; Stigma; Haiti.

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