On being informed you are HIV positive: experiences of Navy service members

This study addressed the experience of being told that one has become infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while serving in the United States Navy. Responses to a questionnaire, administered to 150 HIV-positive service members, indicated that feelings of fear, shock, disbelief, and embarrassment were experienced by study participants upon learning of their HIV-positive status. The manner in which their HIV diagnosis was disclosed was generally viewed in favorable terms and more so in recent years relative to the earliest days of the Navy's HIV program. Having a medical officer as a disclosing official was associated with more negative experiences than was the case for other categories of disclosing officials. Lastly, post-disclosure events were often excessively stressful, and no improvement in this regard over 6 years of the Navy's HIV program was evident.