An epidemic of apprehension: Questions about HIV/AIDS to an East African newspaper health advice column

While AIDS awareness is almost universal in Uganda, cultural values discourage open discussion of sexual behaviour. Thus many questions remain unasked, especially in public. This study managed to analyse some of these queries by examining 1252 letters written spontaneously to a newspaper health advice column: of the letters, more than 325 included specific questions about HIV/AIDS. Being written, the questions include topics too embarrassing or stigmatized to voice in a spoken forum. The most common underlying emotions in the letters about HIV/AIDS were apprehension and anxiety. Many of the letters expressed, directly or indirectly, that people feel they cannot control their lives and cannot effectively protect themselves or their families from the threat of AIDS. Health education information about HIV/AIDS has been interpreted through an emotional filter of fear, vulnerability and distrust. Writers often turned to informal networks of peers, friends and relatives for confirmation of information about HIV/AIDS. However, this 'common knowledge' seemed frequently to serve as an obstacle to understanding and change rather than a source of support. People wrote that they feared transmission of HIV through unlikely and unavoidable daily activities such as eating. Fear magnified a wide range of common and persistent symptoms (rashes, coughs, fevers, sore throats) into the feared diagnosis of AIDS. Accurate information is vital and necessary, but information alone will not offset emotional vulnerability or anxiety. People also need to have their fears acknowledged and addressed in a credible way.