Factors Associated With Disclosure of Hiv/Aids Status to Hiv Infected Children On Anti Retroviral Therapy (Art)

Children of today are the youth of tomorrow. HIV status discloser to HIV/AIDS infected children who are on ART is very essential to maintain the adherence of the treatment for developing the resistance power/protect from opportunistic infections. Parents, care givers and health care professionals are unwilling to inform/disclose children about their HIV status. The main objective of this study is to identify the ratio of children who have known their HIV status and factors associated with disclosure in HIV infected children who are on ART in Andhra Pradesh. A cross-sectional study was conducted in three districts of Andhra Pradesh. The respondents for the study were children living with HIV/AIDS and on Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) and their caregivers in selected ART centres in Andhra Pradesh. A total of 109 children, parents/caregiver pairs were interviewed in the study. 56 children (51.38%) were above 10 years of age. HIV/AIDS status was known by 41 (37.6%) children, 86 (78.9%) caregivers said that the child should be informed about their HIV/AIDS status when he/she complete 14 years of age. 90 (82.57%) of them opted for disclosure of HIV status to child should be done by Health care Provider. Children less than 10 years of age and those living with literate caregivers are less likely to know their results than their counterparts. Children from CCC/Institutions were probably know their results than those from community. The ratio of disclosure of HIV/AIDS status to children on ART is low. Strengthen of ART centres/Health Care providers’ skills to motivate the caregivers to increase the rate of disclosure.