Healthcare teams' ethical obligations towards care of adolescents' living with human immunodeficiency virus disease

Abstract

Aim: To explore healthcare team members' perceptions of their ethical obligations toward HIV-positive adolescents and their enrolment in and adherence to antiretroviral therapy among adolescents attending a Care and Treatment Center (CTC) in Temeke Regional Referral Hospital in Tanzania. Design: This is a descriptive exploratory qualitative study. Methods: A total of 16 healthcare team members were purposively selected from the hospital CTC to participate in in-depth qualitative interviews. With the aid of NVivo software, qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyze the information. Results: Five themes on ethical obligations emerged: (1) informing adolescents of their status before enrolment to the HIV CTC, (2) securing adolescents’ confidential information, (3) disclosing adolescents' HIV status, (4) informing others about the adolescent’s HIV status; and (5) offering reproductive health education for adolescents living with HIV. Conclusion: The healthcare team faces many ethical challenges in the care and support of adolescents who enroll in an HIV CTC in Tanzania. Differing ethical obligations must be balanced with the needs of adolescents and their parents in discerning what is in the best interest of the adolescent and advocating for life-saving treatment.