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HIV Disclosure to Infected Children Involving Peers: A New Take on HIV Disclosure in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Appropriately informing HIV-infected children of their diagnosis is a real challenge in sub-Saharan Africa. Until now, there is no consensus on who ought to disclose and how to disclose. This paper describes the model for HIV status disclosure in which HIV-positive children/adolescents are informed...

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Autores principales: Kitetele, Faustin Nd., Dageid, Wenche, Lelo, Gilbert M., Akele, Cathy E., Lelo, Patricia V. M., Nyembo, Patricia L., Tylleskär, Thorkild, Kashala-Abotnes, Espérance
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10377987/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37508590
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children10071092
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author Kitetele, Faustin Nd.
Dageid, Wenche
Lelo, Gilbert M.
Akele, Cathy E.
Lelo, Patricia V. M.
Nyembo, Patricia L.
Tylleskär, Thorkild
Kashala-Abotnes, Espérance
author_facet Kitetele, Faustin Nd.
Dageid, Wenche
Lelo, Gilbert M.
Akele, Cathy E.
Lelo, Patricia V. M.
Nyembo, Patricia L.
Tylleskär, Thorkild
Kashala-Abotnes, Espérance
author_sort Kitetele, Faustin Nd.
collection PubMed
description Appropriately informing HIV-infected children of their diagnosis is a real challenge in sub-Saharan Africa. Until now, there is no consensus on who ought to disclose and how to disclose. This paper describes the model for HIV status disclosure in which HIV-positive children/adolescents are informed about their diagnosis in a process conducted by young peers under healthcare worker (HCW) supervision in a hospital in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo. This new take on HIV status disclosure involving peers includes four stages that help the trained peer supporters to provide appropriate counseling, taking into account the age and level of maturity of the child/adolescent: the preliminary stage, the partial disclosure stage, the full disclosure stage, and the post-disclosure follow-up stage. Of all children/adolescents whose HIV status disclosure data were documented at Kalembelembe Pediatric Hospital (KLLPH) between 2004 and 2016, we found that disclosure by peers was highly accepted by parents, children/adolescents, and health workers. Compared to children/adolescents disclosed to by HCWs or parents, children/adolescents disclosed to by peers had (a) fewer depressive symptoms reported, (b) better drug adherence resulting in higher viral load suppression, and (c) a higher proportion of survivors on treatment. We found that involving peers in the disclosure process of HIV is an important approach to ensure adherence to treatment, resilience, and mental wellbeing of HIV-infected children/adolescents.
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spelling pubmed-103779872023-07-29 HIV Disclosure to Infected Children Involving Peers: A New Take on HIV Disclosure in the Democratic Republic of Congo Kitetele, Faustin Nd. Dageid, Wenche Lelo, Gilbert M. Akele, Cathy E. Lelo, Patricia V. M. Nyembo, Patricia L. Tylleskär, Thorkild Kashala-Abotnes, Espérance Children (Basel) Article Appropriately informing HIV-infected children of their diagnosis is a real challenge in sub-Saharan Africa. Until now, there is no consensus on who ought to disclose and how to disclose. This paper describes the model for HIV status disclosure in which HIV-positive children/adolescents are informed about their diagnosis in a process conducted by young peers under healthcare worker (HCW) supervision in a hospital in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo. This new take on HIV status disclosure involving peers includes four stages that help the trained peer supporters to provide appropriate counseling, taking into account the age and level of maturity of the child/adolescent: the preliminary stage, the partial disclosure stage, the full disclosure stage, and the post-disclosure follow-up stage. Of all children/adolescents whose HIV status disclosure data were documented at Kalembelembe Pediatric Hospital (KLLPH) between 2004 and 2016, we found that disclosure by peers was highly accepted by parents, children/adolescents, and health workers. Compared to children/adolescents disclosed to by HCWs or parents, children/adolescents disclosed to by peers had (a) fewer depressive symptoms reported, (b) better drug adherence resulting in higher viral load suppression, and (c) a higher proportion of survivors on treatment. We found that involving peers in the disclosure process of HIV is an important approach to ensure adherence to treatment, resilience, and mental wellbeing of HIV-infected children/adolescents. MDPI 2023-06-21 /pmc/articles/PMC10377987/ /pubmed/37508590 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children10071092 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kitetele, Faustin Nd.
Dageid, Wenche
Lelo, Gilbert M.
Akele, Cathy E.
Lelo, Patricia V. M.
Nyembo, Patricia L.
Tylleskär, Thorkild
Kashala-Abotnes, Espérance
HIV Disclosure to Infected Children Involving Peers: A New Take on HIV Disclosure in the Democratic Republic of Congo
title HIV Disclosure to Infected Children Involving Peers: A New Take on HIV Disclosure in the Democratic Republic of Congo
title_full HIV Disclosure to Infected Children Involving Peers: A New Take on HIV Disclosure in the Democratic Republic of Congo
title_fullStr HIV Disclosure to Infected Children Involving Peers: A New Take on HIV Disclosure in the Democratic Republic of Congo
title_full_unstemmed HIV Disclosure to Infected Children Involving Peers: A New Take on HIV Disclosure in the Democratic Republic of Congo
title_short HIV Disclosure to Infected Children Involving Peers: A New Take on HIV Disclosure in the Democratic Republic of Congo
title_sort hiv disclosure to infected children involving peers: a new take on hiv disclosure in the democratic republic of congo
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10377987/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37508590
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children10071092
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