Fear of stigma prevents pregnant women from seeking prenatal care, studies show

Though many pregnant women are aware that treatment could save their lives and the lives of their infants if they test HIV-positive during prenatal care, a new study and literature review have found that a "[f]ear of being stigmatized as an AIDS patient is still a major barrier to good medical care for pregnant young women in many countries," the New York Times reports. The study, published last week in PLoS Medicine, was "based on a survey of 1,777 women in rural Nyanza Province in Kenya," according to the newspaper, which adds, "Only 44 percent of mothers in the province delivered in clinics, and the study found that a major obstacle was that they feared HIV tests." The study's author, Janet Turan, a professor of public health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in July also published "a review of multiple studies in many countries" that documented multiple accounts of "stigmatizing behavior," the newspaper notes (McNeil, 8/27).