Eneh Augusta U, Ugwu Rosemary O, Tabansi Petronilla N
With Antiretroviral treatment and care, the population of children with HIV infection who grow into adolescence and adulthood will increase. The consequences of not disclosing the diagnosis to them becomes worrisome. This study tries to explore the mothers’ opinion on disclosure of their child’s positive HIV status to them, and also find out reasons if any, for not disclosing this status to them. Mothers of HIV infected children attending the infectious disease clinic at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital were interviewed. Of the 223 mothers interviewed, 189(84.7%) would disclose the HIV status to their children and 96 (50.3%) would disclose at age 15–18 years. Reasons for not disclosing before this age were belief that the child would not understand 97(51.3%) and the child’s inability to keep his status a secret 42(22.2%). The male gender of the child, maternal HIV sero-negativity status, and primary level of education significantly affected willingness to disclose (p=0001, 0.0000 and 0.005 respectively). 101(45.2%) would not disclose to family members including the siblings. Mothers with HIV infected children are unwilling to disclose the diagnosis to them, until the late adolescent period for fear of stigmatization, as well as inability to cope with the diagnosis and keep it secret
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