Implications of Sero-Status disclosure among sexual partners in Uganda: A situational analysis among clients reporting for counselling & testing at Mulago National Referral Hospital.
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Date
2024-05-06
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Publisher
King Ceasor University, Institutional Repository
Abstract
Voluntary HIV disclosure among sexual partners has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include helping people with HIV to ask for and receive social support, have safer sex, and assistance to access HIV treatment among sexual partners while disadvantages are such as being blamed, discriminated against, depressed, divorced, and verbally abused after a voluntary disclosure. This study assessed the implication of serostatus disclosure among sexual partners at the HIV counseling and testing center at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Uganda. This was a cross-sectional and descriptive study, involving 157 adult PLWHA, selected using a non-probability convenience sampling method and questionnaires to collect data, which was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS). Data was presented in frequency tables, pie charts, and graphs with explanatory remarks. The study revealed that 98(62.4%) of the respondents disclosed their HIV-positive serostatus to their sexual partners. Sixty respondents (61.2), 50(51%), 26(26.5), and 18(18.3%) of those who disclosed their HIV status with sexual partners reported having depression, being blamed/beaten, divorced, and being stigmatized respectively. On the other hand, 19(19.3%), 11(11.2%), and 8(8.1%) received social support from their partners, their partners were tested after their disclosure and discussed safer sex with their sexual partner after disclosure respectively. The findings suggest that PLWHA have varying experiences, ranging from depression, being blamed/beaten, desertion or separation, and stigma to support, safer sex, and partner testing, with the majority suffering negative experiences. Therefore, there is a need to develop programs for counseling PLWHA on the management of negative experiences, living positively, self-disclosure, and prevention of re-infection with HIV.
Key Words: Sero-Status; Disclosure; HIV
Description
King Ceasor University is one of the cosmopolitan Universities in Uganda offering a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, Nursing Science Degree, and more. It has partnered with Mulago National Referral Hospital to support student learning and research.