PARENTAL HIV DISCORDANCY AND ITS IMPACT ON THE FAMILY

There is little or no available information on the effect of HIV disco rdancy in heterosexual relationships on different family members. A re view of case notes was carried out on all families who had a child ref erred to the paediatric HIV service/family clinic at St Mary's Hospita l between January 1991 and March 1996. The children had been exposed t o HIV infection because they were born to HIV-positive women. There wa s HIV discordancy in more than one-fifth of the parents' relationships . In over 46% of the relationships, the HIV status of the natural or b irth father was not known because he was either untested or unavailabl e. It is likely that not all of these melt 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. Considerati on of the potential impact of discordancy an individual men, women and children is discussed.