This qualitative study aimed to identify the health-care problems of people living with HIV (PLHIV)
in 2 large cities: Tehran and Kermanshah. Two main groups of stakeholders — service providers (policy-makers,
managers, physicians and counsellors) and service recipients (PLHIV and their relatives) — participated in focus
group discussions and in-depth interviews. We identified 24 themes covering the major health problems of
PLHIV, including: incomplete and inadequate coverage of health-care services; patients’ substance abuse;
patients’ fear of stigma; occupational burnout of certain service providers; patients’ dissatisfaction with some
of the services provided by counselling centres/clinics; medical staff’s failure to observe confidentiality; and
patients’ lack of access to required specialized services. The problems and needs identified can inform the design
and implementation of health programmes in our country and elsewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
