Sexual experiences of adolescents living with HIV and aids in Liwale district

This study describes the sexual partnership dynamics among adolescent aged 15-24 living with HIV/AIDS, and attending Counselling and Testing Centre (CTC) clinics. Being a purely qualitative study the sudy went further to highlight these challenges and fears, more specifically on the question of disclosure of HTV and AIDS status to a partners, challanges in initiation and negotiation on sexual relationship as well as challanges in engaging and maintaining sexual relationship. The informants were obtained through purposive sampling method: 20 YLHIV, 5 health practitioners, and 2 HIV/AIDS expert patients, and a District HIV/AIDS Coordinator. All of them were interviewed while in the CTC at Liwale District Hospital. All interviews were tape-recorded and the data was transcribed verbatimly. After transcription, data were translated and finally analysed by pointing out themes prior to the objectives of the study. In the findings, the informants pointed out fear and challenges of disclosure of HTV-status to a partiner and fear and challenges of decision-making processes and negotiations in sexual relationships. In their different experiences YPLHV do fear to disclose HIV status to partiners, this haapence due to influence of gender, age, social class, dealin with psychological dimages and the way they got infected. These elements also influence the timing of disclosure to a partiner i.e some decide to disclose before sex, some after long time sexual relationship and other decide not to dislose at all. For the case of girls, they afraid to be harassed, and beaten by partiners, also they fear that their partners will cut off the financial support, those who are younger disclose before sex because the afraid to infect their partiner, for boys, they do not like to inform their partiner due to fear that they will get psychological dimages. The study recommended actions of advocacy, legislations and empowerment as weapons for reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS among adolescent youth aged 15-24 years old in the Liwale district.