Words to avoid and substitutions for better communication with people living with HIV

Abstract

          HIV infection is a health problem that effects infected people, both physically, mentally, socially and spiritually. This resulted in a fragile adaptation. Therefore, public health personal must have communication skills in order to gain understanding and trust of infected people. The avoidance of words is a constructive way of communicating to reduce the severity of words that can be used by people with HIV. According to the analysis of the words found in Twitter, an online social media during August-September 2020, there were five groups of ordinary words to avoid and substitution words used among people with HIV: 1) HIV: +, H, H+; 2) HIV infection: Life with +, Life positive thinking, Positive thinking; 3) people living with HIV: Family H, persons living with H; 4) people taking antiretroviral drugs: Nine PM team, Ten PM team, Life with T-vir; and 5) antiretroviral drugs: Vitamin, Candy. It is recommended to use word avoidance technic to reduce seriousness of the words in communication and to show understanding in people with HIV by assessing the needs for proper communication for people with HIV, construct an agreement with people with HIV regarding words to avoid and substitutions for communication, study substitution words popularly used by people with HIV, and used other technic in communication for communication. Health personnel should study and develop themselves in communication skills for creative and intelligent use of language in communicating health.