HIV-related practices and ethics--survey of opinions in a paediatric department

Seventy-five doctors working in an academic paediatric department each completed an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. Questions were posed relating to the need for consent before human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing and the informing of sexual partners of HIV-infected mothers. Only 9% of the doctors thought that the sexual partner of an HIV-infected mother should never be informed if the mother refused to do so. Sixty-one per cent of the doctors thought that pre-test consent was never necessary when screening hospital admissions. This opinion conflicts with the view of the South African Medical and Dental Council that pre-test consent is mandatory.