“It’s all about your mind” – Key strategies to survive AIDS for people who inject drugs in Vietnam

Tóm tắt

Intersecting life challenges and particular contextual factors have been shown to influence the ways people cope with HIV. People who inject drugs (PWID) face various issues and remain vulnerable to HIV despite intervention efforts. Our study explores what HIV means to PWID, what strategies they employ to cope with it, and what resources they mobilize throughout this process in Vietnam, a lower middle-income country. We conducted 34 in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations with community-based PWID living with HIV. Findings indicate that the experience of learning about one’s HIV positivity centered on apprehensions concerning participants' ability to fulfill gendered role duties and on common exposure to AIDS-related deaths. Main coping strategies include positive thinking and adjustment of life expectations. Participants used positive thinking as the most viable survival strategy as a result of their incomplete trust in medicine, given the historical availability of ART in Vietnam. Participants relied on family and peer support groups as major resources, but their relationship with medical providers was less significant. PWID's experience of living with HIV is shaped by particular sociocultural factors specific to this population. Intervention programs should recognize the importance of family and self-help groups while improving patient-provider relationships.