Prevalence and factors affecting HIV serostatus disclosure among pregnant women receiving pmtct services in Dar es Salaam

Abstract

HIV serostatus disclosure in a pregnant woman has to be regarded as a special issue due to the fact that this woman will need to access additional resources and psychological support from her spouse and family in order to succeed with plans in prevention of mother-to-eh i Id transm ission. Knowing one's HIV status is one of the most powerful motivators of behavior change. Most people who know their HIV status take appropriate steps to protect themselves as well as their partners. The low rates of HIV serostatus disclosure reported among women in ANC settings have several implications for PMTCT programmes as the optimal uptake and adherence to such programmes is difficult for women whose partners are either unaware or not supportive of their participation. So far, most studies carried out to determine the extent of serostatus disclosure have been done either in VCT settings or among HIV positive women only. Thus, the need to carry out this study that involving both HIV negative and HIV positive pregnant mothers was critical. The importance of involving partner and significant others has increased as we move from PMTCT to PMTCT -plus and therefore there is need to study obstacles towards disclosure in order to develop appropriate interventions that would increase disclosure. Hence, a cross sectional study was conducted among 437 pregnant mothers attending ANC clinics at Government hospitals in Oar es Salaam, Tanzania to examine the