The prevalent causes of non-disclosure of HIV status and their effect on Tema Municipality.

Abstract

This research looks at the widespread effect of HIV patients (adults)’ unwillingness to disclose their HIV Status. The study takes the Tema Municipality as a case study to investigate the causes of non-disclosure of HIV status. A sample of 300 HIV-infected adults who currently attending Tema General Hospital for medicals and counseling are selected. The focus was on their disclosure rate, gender disclosure rate, outcomes of disclosure and non-disclosure and causes of non-disclosure of their HIV status. The study reveals that 75% of the sampled respondents had revealed their HIV status and 25% failed to do so. A lot of factors were found out to be the reasons for non-disclosure. Key among them are fear of victimization, rejection, physical abuse and breach of confidentiality. The non-disclosure rate for male is 2.096 times higher than that of female. Out of the 75 nondisclosure respondents, 93.3% of them are living their normal lives while 6.7% of respondents felt like there was a heavy responsibility on their shoulder for not disclosing their status. The result of multivariate analysis shows the variables (gender, educational status and use of condom during sex) are significant in determining non-disclosure rate. Though there are more females living with HIV status, males have higher non-disclosure rate. Furtherance However, educational level of the individual and use of condom at the time of sex have negative impact on non-disclosure rate. The study recommends that the hospital attendants ensure, they listen to and document reactions of PLHIV victims and also organize counseling session for the victims on how to disclose their status immediately to, especially, partners and families. The Government should encourage the existing health institutions to provide friendly sexual and reproductive counselling and testing services. This should include voluntary counselling and testing for HIV.