To Tell or Not to Tell? HIV Positive Status Disclosure in Africa

Telling one's HIV test result to others is a public health goal in HIV/AIDS prevention. It helps to engage in preventive behaviors and to access the necessary support for coping with serostatus or illness. It may motivate sexual partners to seek testing, change behavior and ultimately decrease transmission of HIV. Nonetheless the reality is that many HIV positive individuals do not disclose their results to their partners, families and social networks. The secrecy towards HIV results has contributed to the widespread stigmatization of HIV infection and continued spread of infection. As the global fight to HIV/AIDS progresses the importance of HIV disclosure is becoming more important. The book explored HIV positive status disclosure rate, the rezones behind non-disclosure of HIV positive results, and the outcomes of HIV status disclosure and identifies the role of gender in HIV results secrecy. Multilateral organizations, program planners', policy makers and researchers in academic institutions are the intended beneficiaries of the book.