Dealing with children and HIV

From one of the side sessions -- ``Workforce Needs and Challenges in Delivery of HIV Care’’ – came these thoughts about children and HIV:

A male doctor: “There are large numbers of parents treating their children, but not telling their kids the reason, not telling them what they are being treated for. After age 13 their doctor can tell them.”

A female doctor: “Their doctor has an ethical responsibility to tell them. We have a policy: When HIV positive children turn 10, we ask their parents to sign a letter. It says that if you don’t tell them by age 13, we will. We’ve lost patients, but we have to do it. All the data shows that the earlier you tell, the better the patient does.”

A young man: ``We should tell them younger. My mother is an elementary school teacher in Detroit. She teaches in a school that goes up to grade five. She tells me weekly stories of students being sexually active.’’

--Guest post, Bee Wuethrich