The inability to manage COVID-19-related stigma has also contributed to the accumulation of cases in Indonesia. The number of cases is the time in Southeast Asia.
Globally, we are seeing how stigma is wreaking havoc on affected communities, adding in Indonesia, and how concern prevents COVID-19.
Stigma and discrimination have accompanied many infectious disease epidemics.
As has been observed with the HIV epidemic, we see how the misfortune and concern of stigma and discrimination can lead to increased COVID-19 transmission and save you significant public fitness control.
Shame and worry spread diseases
AIDS-related deaths declined in up to a maximum of countries, adding up emerging countries, as a result of widespread innovations in access to antiretroviral remedies in the early 2000s.
However, AIDS-related deaths have never decreased in Indonesia and tolls have increased by up to 60% since 2010.
Among the many demanding situations facing Indonesia in its HIV epidemic, stigma and discrimination are the biggest obstacles. The COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia presents demanding situations.
Shame, a negative emotion of indignity and inferiority related to one’s basic identity, is the result of stigma.
Shame leads others to behave in a way that is possibly contrary to their most productive interests, which can lead others to seek their belonging in risky environments and communities.
Regardless of the transmission approach and the main differences between viruses, HIV and COVID-19 are potentially fatal; however, the risk of dishonor may be worse than the risk of death in itself. and save you misfortune.
Fear of persecution and negative outcomes, such as violence, abandonment and breakdown of appointments, due to HIV-related stigma, lead others to be tested or treated.
Similarly, if others know that a positive diagnosis of COVID-19 for themselves or a member of a circle of family members has a negative effect on them or isolates them from their network or saves them from earning a living, that concern can save them. you them to get tested.
Residents of Penjaringan, north Jakarta, “locked themselves in when the COVID-19 swab tests were administered in the lobby of the neighborhood network. ” They did so by being stigmatized and wasting opportunities to earn a living.
Social stigma has worsened HIV rates among men who have sex with men and other marginalized groups. Stigma has driven underground. This then increases the risk of HIV and vulnerability in these groups.
In April, he reported that a patient diagnosed with coronavirus in Indonesia had been subjected to ruthless insinuations suggesting that she had contracted it through sex work.
Public concern creates a stigma that opposes other inflamed people as a protective mechanism. Beliefs that attribute guilt and duty to other inflamed people, even without foundation, can make others feel bigger and deny their own risks.
Similar effects have been observed for populations affected by tuberculosis, leprosy and Ebola, for example.
Misinformation gets worse
Myths, incorrect information, and fake news exacerbate those problems.
A World Fund report noted that in Surabaya, East Java, patients who came up for HIV testing were asked to physically exercise for perceived sins before being cared for. they don’t deserve fitness care.
In a study on public understanding and incorrect information on COVID-19 in Indonesia, 28% of the 530 respondents believe THAT COVID-19 is an intentionally created biological weapon and 20% believe that gargling with salt water or vinegar can kill the virus.
The Indonesian government’s own ministers have unconventional and unproven methods, such as prayer, to defeat COVID-19.
Government leadership guides this public understanding; an understanding that prayer protects in opposition to COVID-19 would possibly result in a confidence that other inflamed people do not respect devout education, undermining its price in society.
Governments and those who inspire guilt or false ideals about an infectious disease lead to stigma.
This cycle of stigma prevents affected communities and communities from thriving and leads to poor physical and intellectual health.
Public aptitude methods that perpetuate stigma fail in an infectious disease epidemic. Power and structural mechanisms deserve to be used to teach others and generate positive behavior change.
Public strategies
We can be informed methods that have reduced the stigma of HIV to manage COVID-19.
Countries that have strategically reduced institutional stigma have noticed higher rates of HIV testing and remedies and greater participation in care. As a result, new HIV infections are reduced.
These have been observed, for example, in neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, Thailand and Vietnam.
Thailand has pioneered reducing HIV-related stigma and discrimination in fitness care services through a state-of-the-art system-wide response.
It was a strategy against stigma and discrimination based on global measurement tools. The strategy includes a continuous monitoring system, evidence-based movements in the fitness facilities, and informed network participation at all levels.
Thailand has also been more successful than most Southeast Asian countries in preventing deaths and instances of COVID-19 by adopting a “society-wide” approach. This is helping to perceive and respond to the wishes of vulnerable populations.
To address emerging rates of COVID-19 infection, public conditioning efforts will need to focus on understanding people’s needs, priorities and fears and preventing stigma. Don’t leave the most vulnerable populations behind.
The Indonesian government deserves to be informed of its policies on how to fuel HIV-related stigma to avoid perpetuating stigma during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is imperative that governing bodies and decision-makers discourage misinformation and stick to strong local and foreign knowledge. They will also need to translate knowledge for the public to understand in order to minimize concern and announce adherence to public fitness interventions.
This comes with threat communication methods to fill the gaps in the wisdom of the general population and prevent it from spreading “fake news”.