Youth's Experiences in Disclosing HIV Positive Status

Youth is a group of people which has been greatly affected by HIV epidemic in Malawi. They are vulnerable to HIV infection because they are at a stage where they are beginning sexual exploration. Youth therefore, need a lot of information and support on HIV preventions, and voluntary counseling and testing. They should be encouraged and assisted to disclose their HIV status whether positive or negative for them to access necessary support systems. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to explore youth’s experiences in disclosing their HIV positive status Methodology: This is an exploratory study that adopted a qualitative approach utilizing the phenomenological design to explore the experiences of HIV positive participants in disclosing their HIV positive status. The study was conducted in Likuni urban and Nambuma areas in Lilongwe district, Malawi. Ten HIV positive participants five males and five females between the ages 19-25 years were purposively sampled half from each area. A qualitative approach to data collection was done through face to face individual in-depth interviews. All the interviews were audio taped and transcribed verbatim using qualitative content analysis.