HIV and AIDS in Malawi

Although policy makers and practitioners in Malawi are aware that HIV information is an indispensable component of the fight against the HIV pandemic, their focus seems to be more on getting information to people and not the information related dynamics that drive behaviour change. According to the National AIDS Commission (Malawi) 80% of new HIV infections occur among serodiscordant couples. Therefore, understanding how they experience HIV and AIDS information is an essential prerequisite to the success in the fight against the HIV pandemic. “Behavioral studies limit themselves to shedding light on the patterns of sexual practices among specific population and occupational groups. Often these studies merely highlight the cultural stereotypes of these specific groups ignoring the underlying circumstances for their behaviors” (Kalipeni & Ghosh, 2007) My PhD project therefore investigates how serodiscordant couples experience HIV and AIDS information. I am using phenomenology. I will discuss phenomenology in the next post.