Project 175125

South Africa has the highest absolute number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in the world. Although testing and treatment centres are available throughout the country, testing rates remain low, and treatment uptake is inconsistent. HIV testing is an essential precursor to treatment, and treatment with antiretroviral drugs has been shown to lower the viral load in an individual, thus making them less infectious. Both testing and consistent treatment form part of a comprehensive HIV prevention campaign. Although there are various reasons for low rates of participation in testing and treatment programmes, an understudied factor is the effect of conspiracy beliefs. A recent study (Bogart et al 2008) showed that people who endorsed a genocidal conspiracy belief (e.g."HIV was created by Whites to kill Blacks") were less likely to have an HIV test. Ethnographic research by Steinberg (2007) suggests that conspiracy belief is also an important impediment to seeking treatment with antiretroviral medication. The political and historical origins of such beliefs are persuasive: generations of an Apartheid government that actively researched biological and chemical weapons that could be used against ANC insurgents, as well as recent 'AIDS denialism' by the former President Mbeki and his colleagues has lent credibility to the notion that HIV/AIDS is man-made, and that health programmes may not be benevolent. By understanding this phenomenon in more detail, and establishing the effects of conspiracy belief on health seeking behavior, this research will better inform interventions that are attempting to promote HIV prevention. This study also seeks to develop our understanding of the role of conspiracy theories' influence on responses to HIV/AIDS as an exemplar for understanding this phenomena in infectious diseases more generally.