Imperial College London
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ProfessorHelenWard

Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health

Professor of Public Health
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 3303h.ward Website

 
 
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Location

 

311School of Public HealthWhite City Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Rai:2018:10.1111/hex.12816,
author = {Rai, T and Bruton, P and Day, S and Ward, H},
doi = {10.1111/hex.12816},
journal = {Health Expectations},
pages = {1134--1141},
title = {From activism to secrecy: contemporary experiences of living with HIV in London in people diagnosed from 1986 to 2014},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hex.12816},
volume = {21},
year = {2018}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background:Successes in biomedicine have transformed HIV from a debilitating and frequently fatal infection to a chronic, manageable condition. Objective:To explore how the contemporary metanarrative of HIV as a chronic condition is understood by patients and how it varies depending on when they were diagnosed.Design:Qualitative interviews with fifty-two people living with HIV who were diagnosed during different phases in the history of the epidemic.  Setting and participantsParticipants were recruited from two HIV clinics in London to include four “HIV generations”:  generation 1 were those who had been diagnosed pre-1997 (pre-ART), generation 2 from 1997-2005 (complex ART), generation 3 from 2006-2012 (simpler ART) and generation 4 were diagnosed in the year before the study (2013-2014). Results: Participants in all HIV generations took their medication as prescribed, attended clinic appointments and were well-informed about their immunological biomarkers. While the pre-treatment generation had been engaged in community endeavours such as activism, public education and use of support groups, those more recently diagnosed had little experience of collective activities and their HIV was essentially a private matter, separate from their social identity. These strategies worked for some however those experiencing clinical or social problems related to HIV or wider issues often relied exclusively on their HIV clinic for wider support. Conclusion:The loss of public conversation around HIV, the imperative for patients to take on greater individual responsibility for HIV management and the streamlining of HIV services alongside reductions in ancillary support services may expose some people to suboptimal health outcomes.
AU  - Rai,T
AU  - Bruton,P
AU  - Day,S
AU  - Ward,H
DO  - 10.1111/hex.12816
EP  - 1141
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 1369-6513
SP  - 1134
TI  - From activism to secrecy: contemporary experiences of living with HIV in London in people diagnosed from 1986 to 2014
T2  - Health Expectations
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hex.12816
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/62032
VL  - 21
ER  -
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