Abstract
The study examined the patterns of disclosing the HIV diagnosis to infected children and family members, and determined the demographic characteristics associated with disclosure. Semi structured interviews were conducted with caregivers of HIV infected children aged 4 - 17 years receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART). A total of 149 caregivers were recruited from a paediatric HIV clinic of a district hospital in South Africa. Caregivers reported that 59 (39.6%) children were told their HIV diagnosis, and majority 36 (61%) were informed of the diagnosis by people other than their biological mothers. Older child age was a determining factor for HIV disclosure to children, 22 (37.2%) learned of their HIV diagnosis between 11 and 16 years. The mean age of disclosed children was 10.6 years. Caregivers took about 3 years after the initial HIV diagnosis to disclose to children, while 143 (99.3%) caregivers reported that disclosure to family members happened immediately after the child's HIV diagnosis. About 28 (31.5%) non-disclosed caregivers planned to disclose to the child between 12 and 18 years, while 13 (14.6%) were not sure about the ideal age to disclose to the child. The lack of consensus regarding the appropriate age for disclosure and the delayed age for future disclosure, suggest that despite increased access to ART for children, there are still significant barriers to disclosing HIV to infected children in this setting. There is a need for health care providers to support caregivers to disclose shortly after diagnosis especially in view of the older age of diagnosis among children enrolled in ART program in this setting.
Highlights
The 2008 South African national HIV prevalence survey reported an increase in the survival time of adults and children living with HIV coincident with the increased access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) [1]
This study examined the patterns of HIV diagnosis disclosure to infected children and family members
For the majority of children (38.9%), disclosure was done by the biological mothers; about a third of the children were disclosed to by their grandmothers, and a quarter was disclosed to by health care providers
Summary
The 2008 South African national HIV prevalence survey reported an increase in the survival time of adults and children living with HIV coincident with the increased access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) [1]. By the end of 2009, about 86,270 children younger than 15 years of age in South Africa were on ART according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS estimates [2]. Increasing survival into adolescence of HIV infected children with increased access to ART is reported in studies conducted in well-resourced countries [3,4,5]. Disclosure is shown to have positive effects on the clinical course of the disease, is related to improved adherence, and enables children to understand HIV infection and make sense of disease related experiences [7,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. Additional reasons for disclosing HIV to infected children, adolescents, are to educate them about preventing the transmission of HIV to their partners through sexual activities [3,12,19]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
