Counseling HIV Discordant Couples
Tanzania has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the world, with youth and women accounting for a disproportionate number of cases. Nearly 15 percent of positive cases are youth between the ages of 15-24, and 53 percent of this group are women.
AMREF has 47 Voluntary Counseling Testing Centres across Tanzania. From 2001 to 2005 data revealed that 250,000 visited the centres for the first time and over 11% of them tested positive for HIV. Women were two and a half times more likely to be infected than men.
These high prevalence rates can be attributed to poverty, social-cultural and sexual behaviour and gender inequalities. In a male dominated society, where woman have minimal opportunities to make decisions about their sexual relations, it is difficult for women in discordant relationships - where one partner is HIV positive and the other is negative - to reveal their status to their partner.
Women often fear the social repercussions to testing HIV positive and therefore either do not wish to know their status or reveal their status to their partner. These women are often pregnant, increasing the risk of mother to child transmission. Women are also additionally burdened, as they quickly become the primary caretakers of thousands of AIDS orphans.
AMREF is:
Working directly with AMREF Tanzania, to develop a counseling communications tool to improve the ability of counselors to address the needs of people living with or without HIV/AIDS in discordant relationships.
The toolkit will pay close attention to challenges women living with HIV/AIDS face in discordant relationships sch as gender-specific obstacles in the disclosure process.
AMREF will also work closely with the community to combat social stigma and empower women to reduce infection rates as well as improve the quality of care offered to people living with HIV/AIDS and their families.
Major Project Funders:
Canadian Society for International Health (CSIH)
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
Learn more about HIV/AIDS and AMREF's work in;
Ethioipa
Kenya
South Africa
Southern Sudan
Uganda
