"It Stays Between Us" Managing Comorbidities and Public/Private Dichotomies in HPTN071 (POPART) Trial Communities

In contexts of scarcity, managing comorbidities is a complex process, shaped by divergent understandings of causes, prognoses, and social meanings of illness. Drawing on research with one young South African woman living with HIV and epilepsy, and 13 other people with comorbidities, we describe how concepts of “public” and “private” shape the management of co-morbid conditions. Despite narratives of HIV “normalization,” participants labored to keep their HIV status private, while sharing other illness experiences more publicly. We challenge simple dichotomies between public and private spheres and emphasize the need for more fluid understandings of how people negotiate social space.