These losses can be newly painful and intense after a partner's death, and feelings about them can be hard to share and difficult for others to grasp. The irrational stigma attached to HIV disease and AIDS, along with others' fears and misinformation about how a person can become infected or transmit HIV, only adds to the pain, isolation and worries of families. Some people choose secrecy with neighbors, friends, even relatives, rather than risk rejection or discrimination. This can leave survivors cut off from support. Other families choose to be open about HIV disease.
Reactions can vary from understanding and overwhelming support to violent acts.
These are difficult decisions and people may be isolated from others when they need them most. When a person with hemophilia or a sexual partner dies of HIV-related illnesses there are sometimes unresolved feelings of unfairness and betrayal. The fact that the person had to struggle first with hemophilia, then was hit with another disease, may add to feelings of shock and unfairness. That the person was infected through the use of the best available medical treatment is a painful irony. Partners maybe in limbo for several months before they are certain that they are free from infection, and those who cared for the ill person may have concerns about exposure to the virus.