Social challenges experienced by patients with HIV: a phenomenological study

HIV is a newly emerging disease that is unique in human history due to its rapid spread and severity of its effect, and has caused irreparable social and economic challenges to the sufferers as well as the society. Based on this, this research was conducted to study the social challenges experienced by patients with HIV. The research method is qualitative and phenomenological. The statistical population includes 140 people with HIV from positive club in Tabriz, based on the purposeful sampling method and theoretical saturation, 16 people with HIV were selected for interview. In this research, semi-structured interview technique was used to collect information. Concepts and categories obtained from the interviews showed that HIV sufferers in different ways such as; Injection, marriage with infected people who had denied their illness from the other party during marriage, or were infected through their parents, who are considered a kind of victim. In the field of treatment, some sufferers mentioned that, except for the medical staff of the Center for Behavioral Diseases, some doctors misbehave with patients due to lack of knowledge in this field or reject them in some way, and according to the rejection of the sufferers On the part of ordinary people and medical staff, due to ignorance about HIV and how it is transmitted, sufferers deny their illness, which leads to depression and isolation of patients, and according to the labels given to sufferers, they equate HIV with They know death and seek suicide.