Perception of voluntary screening for paediatric HIV and response to post-test counselling by Nigerian parents

Nigeria may be taken to represent countries with an evolving HIV/AIDS epidemic. With particular reference to paediatric HIV, the voluntary testing of young children and their parents may provide an important entry point for the institution of control measures. However, there is a paucity of knowledge about how individuals perceive voluntary testing. This knowledge is important to the development of guidelines for counselling. To reduce this gap, 258 parents of hospitalized children (>1 month to 15 years of age) were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. In addition, to complement the data, four examples of seropositive mother's responses during post-test counselling are presented and analyzed. In the survey, 223 (86%) parents were HIV/AIDS aware but only 88 (39%) of these parents could describe one or more route(s) of transmission and none described vertical transmission. Among the respondents, 153 (62%) of 248 would consent to the screening of self, and 195 (85%) of 230 to the screening of a hospitalized child if based on his/her clinical condition. Perceptions of good health and lack of exposure, and despair owing to lack of a specific treatment, were the common reasons for refusing consent. These represent some of the issues which would need to be addressed to increase the acceptance of voluntary testing. The fear of a break up of families with seropositive mothers but seronegative fathers was a major concern expressed during post-test counselling. HIV-discordance among couples may be frequent and should be considered in the formulation of policies on counselling and voluntary testing.