'BEHOLD, A VIRGIN IS WITH HIV!' MISREPORTING SEXUAL BEHAVIOR AMONG INFECTED ADOLESCENTS

ABSTRACT In four Southern African countries where the HIV prevalence rate is among the highest in the world, 46.4% of a sample of female adolescents infected with HIV report having never engaged in sex. This would indicate either the dominance of non‐sexual modes of HIV transmission or rampant misreporting of sexual behavior in the sample. We propose a method to estimate the extent of misreporting and calculate that the true percentages of virgins among the sample of HIV‐infected adolescent women is 32.1%. After accounting for misreporting, the contribution of sexual modes of HIV transmission is projected as 50.4%, compared with an estimate of 35.5% if we assume no misreporting. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.