“It’s not possible to go inside and have a discussion”: How fear of stigma affects community-based support of of children’s HIV care

This study brings us the voices of caregivers and children in Zimbabwe telling us that stigma still matters. In this longitudinal qualitative study, the results indicate that anxiety around discrimination and fear of stigma on participation in the intervention are barriers to caregivers and children–and ones which community health volunteers experience firsthand as they seek to bring HIV-infected children into care. As this study, and previous studies demonstrate, caregivers mediate the access that children have to care. Community health programs can only be effective at reaching children by addressing stigma and fear with both caregivers and community health volunteers from the beginning.