Stigma by Association as a Barrier to Psychosocial Resilience: Implications for Healthcare System Strengthening among Children of Parents Living with HIV/AIDS in Telangana

Abstract

 HIV/AIDS remains one of the utmost consequential public health challenges of the contemporary era. Despite decades of biomedical advancement and sustained global programmatic investment, the epidemic remains to cast a far-reaching shadow on human health, social structures, and developmental outcomes across the ecosphere. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), as of 2024, about 40.8 million people worldwide were existing with HIV, of whom 1.4 million were children between the ages of 0 and 14 [1]. While significant strides have been made in reducing AIDS-related mortality and the frequency of new infections, the epidemic's range extends well beyond those directly infected. According to UNICEF, roughly 13.8 million children under the age of 18 had lost one or both parents to AIDS-related causes as of 2024, with millions more exposed to heightened risks of poverty, school dropout, discrimination, and social exclusion [2]. These figures underscore a critical yet frequently underacknowledged dimension of the epidemic: the profound psychosocial toll borne not only by individuals living with HIV, but by the children who live alongside them — a population rendered vulnerable not by infection, but by association.