Background: PLWHA health status has dramatically improved in countries where antiretroviral therapy is widely available; meanwhile, they still face high level of stigma, sometimes exerted by healthcare workers. There are no recent figures in France on caregivers'' representation of and attitude towards PLWHA; we aimed to explore the representations of healthcare providers regarding PLWHA, their apprehension when taking care of such patients, and to what extent they witnessed inappropriate behaviors.
Methods: We elaborated an anonymous online survey and diffused it to groups of caregivers (mainly nurses and nurse''s aides) on social networks from November 16 to 24, 2018. The questionnaire focused on healthcare workers knowledge and apprehensions regarding PLWHA, and proposed participants to give example of misconduct they witnessed.
Results: A total of 1759 participants completed the survey (92% women and 8% men); 64.2% were under 35 years of age. There were 41.7% nurses, 32% nurse''s aides, and 12% nursing students. Regarding knowledge about HIV, 42% of respondents thought that even with a controlled viral load, PLWHA remain more or less contagious; conversely, 29.6% knew that when viral load is undetectable, the transmission risk is null. When asked about the precautions to be taken with PLWHA, 7% of them indicated that HIV-positive patients should always be in a single room, and 6.1% that droplets precautions should be applied. Regarding inappropriate behavior towards an HIV-positive patient, 29.1% of the participants reported having witnessed this from colleagues. The 469 testimonials featured denials of care and avoidance strategies (35.6%), unnecessary precautions (42.6%), and value judgment or even insults (25.2%). Regarding their own perception, 49.6% of participants declared having some apprehension with HIV-positive patients that they would not have with patients with another transmissible disease. The 498 testimonials on this subject featured the fear of an accidental blood exposure in 55.6%. Finally, only 39.2% of the participants considered that they were sufficiently informed.
Conclusions: This study shows that negative attitudes towards PLWHA still exist in France; these misconducts are possibly related in part to the fragmentary knowledge of some caregivers. They should receive an adequate formation not to participate in PLWHA stigmatization and to deliver better quality care.

Download the e-Poster