Psychopathology and coping in recently diagnosed HIV/AIDS patients [3]

CITATION: Olley, B. O, Seedat, S. & Stein, D. J. 20014. Psychopathology and coping in recently diagnosed HIV/AIDS patients [3]. South African Medical Journal, 94(9):720-722.The original publication is available at http://www.samj.org.zaWe thank Dr Singh for raising several issues for discussion in his letter1 in response to our paper.2 He states that there is no evidence to support the hypothesis that women with HIV/AIDS may face greater stigmatisation than men, emphasises rather social inequality and poverty as risk factors for HIV infection in women, and recommends the inclusion of a particular stigma scale. Stigmatisation may well have been interesting to include, but it was not a primary object of study in this work, and the validity of the scale recommended by Singh has not yet been demonstrated in developing world contexts. Furthermore, we would point out that HIV/AIDS stigma and gender discrimination are constructs that appear to have considerable overlap.Publisher’s versio