HIV Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about HIV, including details on human immunodeficiency virus, testing, treatment, prevention, vaccines, aids.

Factors leading to self-disclosure of a positive HIV diagnosis in Nairobi, Kenya: people living with HIV/AIDS in the Sub-Sahara.

Neville Miller A, Rubin DL

Daystar University, Nairobi, Kenya.

Understanding why, how, and to whom people living with HIV/AIDS disclose their diagnosis to others is a critical issue for HIV prevention and care efforts, but previous investigations of those issues in sub-Saharan Africa have been limited to one or two questions included in quantitative studies of social support or stigma. Instruments and findings on serostatus disclosure based on U.S. populations are likely to be at best only partially relevant because of Africa's primarily heterosexual transmission vectors and highly communalistic social structures. This qualitative analysis of two male and two female focus groups comprised of persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) in Nairobi, Kenya, revealed several HIVstatus disclosure patterns that appear distinctive to Africa. These include (a) intermediaries as vehicles for disclosure to family, (b) indirectness as a communication strategy, and (c) church pastors as common targets for disclosure.

Published 4 May 2007 in Qual Health Res, 17(5): 586-98.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 HIV Research Today. All Rights Reserved.