Caught in Transition: The Struggle to Live a ‘Normal’ Life with HIV in Tanzania

According to global health discourses, antiretroviral treatment (ART) enables ever more people living with HIV to resume a 'normal' life: a return to health and the reconstruction of social relations. Based on 15 months of fieldwork in Tanga, Tanzania, I explore the extent to which patients 'on the ground' have experienced the shift of HIV from an acute and rapidly deteriorating condition to a 'normal chronic' condition. Drawing on semistructured interviews and participant observation in treatment centers and private households, I juxtapose the discourse of health care providers on 'normalcy' with patients' narratives of everyday life with HIV. I argue that in the context of severe poverty and persistent stigmatization, the transition to normalcy suggested by health care providers during treatment preparation has been difficult for many patients to achieve. Their social quandaries and moral dilemmas suggest that ART introduces new uncertainties into their lives, which keep them trapped in a state of 'permanent transition.'