Search

Undetectable = Untransmittable (U = U) is the scientific fact that HIV cannot be transmitted when an individual is virally suppressed. This breakthrough discovery has the potential to greatly reduce HIV stigma and its negative effects. However, U = U is not widely known. Given that Twitter has the potential to raise awareness of health issues, the purpose of this study was to analyze the content of the #UequalsU on Twitter. The results showed that mentioning sex and mentioning love were strong predictors that a tweet would be liked and retweeted. This information could help to spread the message of U = U more widely and potentially lessen HIV stigma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On May 14, 2014 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) endorsed the drug Truvada as an HIV preventative, called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). PrEP has been shown to dramatically reduce the risk of HIV infection, but its rate of adoption has been slow, and discourse surrounding it has been marked by stigma and uncertainty. The purpose of this study was to investigate how PrEP was discussed on Twitter. Our analysis focused on barriers to PrEP adoption and stigmatization of PrEP users. We analyzed a random sample of 1,093 top tweets about PrEP posted to Twitter a year before and a year after the CDC’s endorsement. Our results showed that tweets likely reinforced uncertainty about barriers to PrEP adoption and that users employed Twitter’s functionality to counter stigmatizing narratives about PrEP. We suggest that our findings illuminate both the limitations and strengths of Twitter as a mechanism for health promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study was to analyze the frequency of incidents of uncertainty in online news articles about Truvada, a drug used to prevent HIV infection. Using a coding scheme that synthesized uncertainty research from health disciplines and communication studies, we analyzed 235 articles from the most-read United States-based news websites. Our results showed that 80.4% of articles contained at least one incident of uncertainty, that articles contained significantly more incidents of uncertainty before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) endorsed Truvada compared to after the CDC endorsed the drug, and that articles mentioning men who have sex with men (MSM) contained significantly more incidents of uncertainty than articles in which they were not mentioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]