Experiences of concealing HIV positive status to immediate family by women at selected villages in Limpopo Province

Abstract

Background: Disclosure of Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) is still a challenge to people living with the disease because of the discrimination, stigma and judgemental attitudes. Women prefer to keep their illness to themselves and make it a secret. The revealing of HIV status relies on an individual who is living with the illness. The concept of non-disclosure is a vital issue that threatens immediate families in which there are people, especially women battling the non-disclosure of their HIV status. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to explore and describe the experiences of concealing HIV positive status to the immediate family by women living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus at the selected villages in Limpopo Province. Methods: The qualitative and descriptive phenomenological method was followed. Due to saturation, ten women participated after being selected through purposive sampling from the database with the consideration of the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews in Sepedi. The data was transcribed, translated and analysed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results: WLW-HIV continue to manage to live with a secret about their HIV status due to the unpleasant feelings they hold about the illness continue, still pointing fingers and sceptical about disclosing, particularly to their children. They further tell lies about their illness and hide their medications away from the members of their family. The reasons about concealing their status include among others fear of prejudice, lack of trust, fear of abandonment and rejection, fear of blame and humiliation, denial, misconceptions that people still hold about HIV and the view of it as a predicament. Others conceal because of the lack of support and the target of the disclosure. xii Conclusion: The outcomes of the study have uncovered that there is still less awareness by members of the society about HIV/AIDS, which puts pressure on the WLW-HIV to effectively deal with an HIV positive status and disclose to their family members. These factors contribute to concealment and compromise the level of support that WLW-HIV would get from their family members, further impacting negatively on adherence. Keywords: Concealment, HIV/AIDS, Phenomenological study, Stigma and Immediate family.