Attitudes to HIV testing among carers of children admitted to Port Moresby General Hospital, Papua New Guinea

Aim: To assess the acceptability of voluntary counselling and testing among the carers of children admitted to hospital in Papua New Guinea. Methods: Forty semistructured interviews were carried out between February and April 2007. Results: All the carers interviewed were women, mostly from Port Moresby. Virtually all of them attended primary school. About half of them attended secondary school but none completed it. Half of them knew an adult or child with HIV. Three quarters of the women interviewed would consent to having a child in their care tested for HIV, and over half of those who had never been tested would agree to be tested themselves. Correct answers to more than half the HIV knowledge questions posed were significantly related to agreement to an HIV test. Conclusions: This study supports the need for further evaluation of knowledge about HIV/AIDS and opportunities for health promotion in this group of women, particularly in view of the implication for voluntary counselling and testing and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission programmes in Papua New Guinea.