WHO KNOWS YOUR HIV STATUS - WHAT HIV PLUS PATIENTS AND THEIR NETWORK MEMBERS KNOW ABOUT EACH OTHER

This research reports on an analysis of personal network data collecte d from 70 HIV-positive HIV/AIDS patients (48 men, 22 women; 45 black, 25 white). Issues examined were the conditions surrounding the difficu lty of knowing information about social network members, including kno wledge of HIV status. The stigmatizing nature of AIDS resulted in sele ctive knowledge regarding a person's HIV status (and other information ) among their social network members. Informants' networks appeared sm aller than those for other groups we have investigated, and this may b e due to informant self-limiting, or alter rejection of HIV informant. These results will be useful in determining the amount of HIV + in th e general population, and these methods could be applied to other hard -to-count populations.