ORIGINAL PAPER The ‘Fears’ of Disclosing HIV Status to Sexual Partners: A Mixed Methods Study in a Counseling Setting in Ghana D. Obiri-Yeboah • D. Amoako-Sakyi • I. Baidoo • A. Adu-Oppong • T. Rheinla ¨nder Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015 Abstract Encouraging disclosure within a trusting and supportive environment is imperative in dealing with HIV/ AIDS related stigma. However, disclosure rates and the factors that influence it are vaguely understood in African societies. This study aimed at determining the disclosure rate and factors that influence disclosure in Cape Coast, Ghana. In-depth interviews of 15 peer educators and a survey of 510 PLHIV were used in a mixed methods study design. Majority of the study participants (78.6 %) had disclosed their HIV positive status to their sexual partners. Although peer educators in this study portrayed the overall outcome of disclosure to be negative, 84.0 % of disclosers were accepted by their partners without negative conse- quences after disclosure. This study suggests that the existing support services ill prepares newly diagnosed HIV positive clients and hampers disclosure initiatives. Pro- viding comprehensive support services and re-training peer educators may be crucial in creating a safe disclosure en- vironment in Ghana. Keywords HIV Á Disclosure Á Sexual partners Á Ghana Introduction While the overall global incidence of HIV seem to have stabilized in recent years, the incidence of HIV among married or cohabiting heterosexual couples has remained high in many parts of Africa [1–3]. The estimated adult national HIV prevalence in Ghana was 1.37 % in 2012 with an estimated 235,982 persons living with HIV and AIDS. Among adults, 7,139 new infections are estimated to have occurred in Ghana in 2012 [4]. A central factor in- fluencing the incidence of HIV among married and co- habiting couples mentioned in studies in the African setting is HIV disclosure status, defined as the readiness of people living with HIV (PLHIV) to inform their sexual partners of their HIV positive status. A study in Ghana showed that the issue of disclosure within a trusting and supportive environment may be an important strategy in dealing with AIDS related stigma [5]. In another study in Ghana, the sexual risk behavior of adults living with HIV was found to be affected by whether they had disclosed to their sexual partners or not [6]. In- creasingly, disclosure of HIV status to sexual partners by PLHIV is being recognized as a crucial part of HIV pre- vention. The benefits of disclosure are several. First, the infected partner will be able to adhere to schedules given for clinical care and antiretroviral therapy (ART) with This article is about the issues of disclosure of positive HIV status to sexual partners. This is discussed in the context of the Ghanaian socio-cultural setting and the issues of navigating intimate relationships by people living with HIV. The discussion helps reveal possible strategies to help made disclosure of HIV positive status to sexual partners more likely to occur in a safe manner and thus lead to the potential benefits stated in literature. D. Obiri-Yeboah (&) Á D. Amoako-Sakyi Department of Microbiology, School of Medical Sciences, University of Cape Coast, PMB, Cape Coast, Ghana e-mail: d.obiri-yeboah@uccsms.edu.gh I. Baidoo ART Center, Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, P.O. Box CT 1363, Cape Coast, Ghana A. Adu-Oppong Department of Community Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana T. Rheinla ¨nder Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark 123 AIDS Behav DOI 10.1007/s10461-015-1022-1