ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES OF MEDICAL PERSONNE L TOWARDS HIV-POSITIVE AND AIDS-PATIENTS

Attitudes of medical personnel towards HIV-positive-persons and AIDS-p atients were investigated by means of 316 semi-structured interviews. Level of knowledge about AIDS exhibited no effect on the extent of pre judice. I However, clear associations emerged between emotional variab les and prejudice: the greater the fear of AIDS and/or homophobia, the greater the extent of prejudice. Medical personnel who characterized themselves as practicing-religious used relatively more prejudiced exp ressions, but were still ready to enter into social contact with AIDS patients. According to our results, continuing education programs cann ot expect to re duce prejudice among medical professionals so long as they rely on assumption that increased factual knowledge about AIDS tr anslates into attitudinal change.