Dladla AN, Mwamburi D, Lurie MN; International Conference on AIDS.
Int Conf AIDS. 2002 Jul 7-12; 14: abstract no. TuPeE5200.
Africa Centre for Population Studies and Reproductive Health and The South African Medical Research Council, Durban, South Africa
BACKGROUND: A study on the role of migration in the spread of HIV enrolled migrant and non-migrant couples. 31.6% of couples were HIV discordant. Out of 80 discordant couples 56.1% males are HIV positive and 43.9% females are HIV positive. This is a sub-study that looks at how HIV positive partners protect their sexual partners who are not yet HIV infected. METHODS: In in-depth interviews with 24 discordant couples, we investigated issues of disclosure of HIV status to the sexual partners, sexual behaviour of HIV positive partners, understanding of the concept of discordance and reaction to infidelity. Males and females were interviewed separately. Interviews were conducted in Zulu, tape-recorded, transcribed and translated into English and analysed using NUD*IST. RESULTS: All participants interviewed did not believe the possibility of having discordant HIV results and none of the HIV positive individuals disclosed their HIV status to their partners, despite encouragement from the project to do so. Most men who were HIV positive had not changed their sexual behaviour. Four of the interviewed men denied being HIV positive and said the sickness they had relates to witchcraft. Both men and women did not use condom due to the issue of trust. Men said that they did not feel the need to protect their HIV negative partners, as they believe that they have "bought" them. In contrast, women were keen to disclose, fear of physical harm and abandonment prevented them for doing so. Men mentioned that they would not tolerate infidelity. CONCLUSIONS: Disclosure of HIV status remains a major issue and condom use for protection may not always be an acceptable solution. They did not understand discordance and consequently an important opportunity for preventing HIV transmission was lost.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Condoms
- Disclosure
- Female
- HIV Infections
- HIV Seropositivity
- Humans
- Male
- Rural Population
- Self Disclosure
- Sexual Behavior
- Sexual Partners
- South Africa
Other ID:
UI: 102257157
From Meeting Abstracts