Parental HIV discordancy and its impact on the family

Abstract

There is little or no available information on the effect of HIV discordancy in heterosexual relationships on different family members. A review of case notes was carried out on all families who had a child referred to the paediatric HIV service/family clinic at St Mary's Hospital between January 1991 and March 1996. The children had been exposed to HIV infection because they were born to HIV-positive women. There was HIV discordancy in more than one-fifth of the parents' relationships. In over 46% of the relationships, the HIV status of the natural or birth father was not known because he was either untested or unavailable. It is likely that not all of these men are infected and the number of discordant couples is greater. There were more discordant couples where the man and woman came from different ethnic groups. Consideration of the potential impact of discordancy on individual men, women and children is discussed.