Abstract

*Beena E Thomas, Chandra Suresh, Basilea Watson, Jamuna M, Vijayalakshmi R and Soumya Swaminathan

We studied the issues around marriage and sexual behaviour in persons living with HIV whose married partners were HIV negative. This was a descriptive study on 111 persons living with HIV, 83 of them being male and 28 of them being female. Early marriages were reported by both males and females but more among the females and most of the respondents reported their spouse to be a relative. A quarter of the female respondents were married the second time, having lost their husbands of the first marriage, early in their marriage. Premarital unsafe sexual intercourse was reported by 55 (66%) of the males thus posing risk to their partner. Furthermore extra marital sexual intercourse after diagnosis of HIV was reported by one third of the males. Those who have reported extra marital sexual intercourse report less condom usage with their spouse (HIV negative) as compared to those who have not had extra-marital sex. (Adjusted O.R. = 0.29 (95% C.I.: 0.12, 0.73); p-value = 0.008). This furthers the risk of HIV transmission.This information calls for the need to evolve strategies that could work toward HIV risk reduction which needs to be included in premarital counselling as well as within the marriage.