TABLE 3.

Partner reaction to disclosure.

Partner reaction	Participants’ narratives
Fear	‘I feel that informing a new partner about my status will scare them away. One partner freaked after I informed her about my status and she stopped contacting me, I later told her I was joking and then she came back.’ (P1, Male, 28 years old)
Ignorance	‘When I told him, he just took it lightly. He would sometimes bribe me into not using a condom. The day I informed him, we did not have condoms but he insisted on having unprotected sex.’ (P2, Female, 42 years old)
Anger	‘He was furious with me at first after I informed him about my status. He deserted me for one month but later accepted and started supporting me and reminding me to take treatment.’ (P6, Female, 35 years old)
Secrecy	‘When I told him, he said he is HIV-positive. He did not inform me before that he was HIV-positive.’ (P3, Female, 32 years old) ‘We did couple testing. He remained quiet for some time after receiving the result and later he began to be supportive and confessed that he had a relationship with a partner who had died because of AIDS.’ (P4, Female, 41 years old)
Rejection	‘He did not support the child after I informed him about my status until I applied for maintenance and took a DNA test and we are no more together.’ (P5, Female, 32 years old). ‘My partner left me when the child was one year old after I informed him about my status.’ (P9, Female, 38 years old)
Silence	‘We went for couple testing, and he tested negative. He was quite after testing and later he started to be supportive and confessed that he had a relationship with a partner who died of AIDS.’ (P6, Female, 41 years old)
Acceptance	‘When I disclose to him, I said, “you will be sitting on a mattress next year”, and he said the same thing.’ (P7, Female, 41 years old)