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Article History

Received: 12 January 2020

Accepted: 25 January 2021

First Online: 6 February 2021

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: Verbal informed consent was taken from all care-givers and children ≥18 before interviews began and documented by the research team. Verbal informed assent was taken from interviewees 15–18 years old, in addition to verbal informed consent from their care-giver. This study and the consent procedures were approved by the <i>Médecins Sans Frontières</i> Ethics Review Board, Geneva, Switzerland (1724) and the Ethics Committee of the School of Public Health, University of Kinshasa, DRC (032/2017). Children who had not been disclosed to were not eligible for the study so as to respect the decision of their care-givers about disclosing. This was verified by the counselling team. Verbal consent was considered appropriate in this context, based on prior experience conducting studies amongst this population.

: Consent for publication was obtained from all study participants during the verbal informed consent process described above.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.