Discrimination to people living with HIV/AIDS among community residents in Putuo district, Shanghai

Objective To understand the level of discrimination to the people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) among community residents in Putuo district, Shanghai. Methods A face to face anonymous questionnaire survey was conducted among the community residents selected by two-stage sampling in Putuo. Results A total of 596 community residents were interviewed in this survey. Among them, 67.6% agreed that it is the punishment for the people infected with HIV through sexual contact or injecting drug use, 54.0% believed that they should be under quarantine, 82.4% wanted to know who is HIV infected around, 51.8% supported the compulsory HIV screening in pre-employment physical examination, 53.7% said that they would be ashamed to have family members infected with HIV and 51.3% didn't want HIV infected person to contact their family members. The residents with low education levels or with low awareness of AIDS related knowledge were more likely to show discrimination to PLWHA. Conclusion Discrimination to PLWHA is common among community residents in Putuo, especially among those with low education level and low awareness of HIV related knowledge. It is necessary to strengthen the health education about AIDS to reduce the discrimination to PLWHA.