WHO KNOWS YOUR HIV STATUS - WHAT HIV PLUS PATIENTS AND THEIR NETWORK MEMBERS KNOW ABOUT EACH OTHER

This research reports on an analysis of personal network data collected from 70 HIV-positive HIV/AIDS patients (48 men, 22 women; 45 black, 25 white). Issues examined were the conditions surrounding the difficulty of knowing information about social network members, including knowledge of HIV status. The stigmatizing nature of AIDS resulted in selective knowledge regarding a person's HIV status (and other information) among their social network members. Informants' networks appeared smaller than those for other groups we have investigated, and this may be due to informant self-limiting, or alter rejection of HIV informant. These results will be useful in determining the amount of HIV + in the general population, and these methods could be applied to other hard-to-count populations.