What do u know about HIV/AIDS and Sexual Transmitted Infections?

Awareness of HIV/AIDS is universal in both urban and rural areas, with 99% of men and women having heard of HIV/AIDS. Two-thirds of men and women in the four study regions are aware that AIDS can be avoided and three-quarters of men and women knew that a healthy-looking person could be infected with HIV.

Misconceptions about HIV transmission are not very widespread. Among all respondents, six percent believed that HIV can be transmitted by kissing and four percent thought that HIV could be transmitted by mosquitoes. However, only 60 percent of respondents knew that a person can not get HIV/AIDS by sharing a meal with someone infected. Identify Prostate Cancer Warning Signs.

Most respondents knew at least one way HIV/AIDS could be avoided. Seventy-four percent of men and 70 percent of women spontaneously mentioned condom use as a way to protect oneself from HIV. In addition, 45 percent of men and 51 percent of women mentioned without prompting that having one faithful partner could offer protection from HIV/AIDS.

About half of all respondents have received an HIV test at some time in their life. Among people who did not receive an HIV test, 74 percent of men and 77 percent of women knew where they could go for an HIV test.

Communication about HIV/AIDS: Few respondents reported discussing HIV or AIDS with their spouse or sexual partner in the past year. In contrast, 29 percent of male respondents and 30 percent of female respondents reported discussing HIV/AIDS with a friend or relatives in the past year. However, only 11 percent of males and 18 percent of females reported that they discussed HIV/AIDS with a health provider in the past year. Seventy-two percent of respondents recalled seeing something about HIV or AIDS on television. More than half of all respondents had read about HIV or AIDS in a newspaper or magazine.

Awareness of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is also high. Eighty-five percent of men and 91 percent of women were aware of STIs and over 80 percent of respondents could name a specific symptom of STIs. Knowledge of STIs was lowest among respondents between the ages of 14 and 17 years: only 63 percent of teenage males and 73 percent of teenage females had heard of STIs.

Stigma and discrimination against HIV-infected individuals appears to be quite high in the four surveyed regions. Only 16 percent of men and 14 percent of women were willing to buy vegetables from an infected shopkeeper and only 27 percent think that an HIV-infected female teacher should be allowed to continue to teach in school.

Most people in the survey understood that people with HIV/AIDS are treated negatively. Only 20 percent of respondents thought that people with HIV/ AIDS are treated the same as other people in their community. Respondents were divided on how people with HIV/AIDS should be treated. Nearly 40 percent of respondents believe that people with HIV/AIDS should be isolated from others in the community, 33 percent do not think HIV-infected people should be isolated, and 27 percent are unsure whether they should be isolated.

The negative attitudes toward HIV-infected people may be partly explained by the perceived reasons for individuals becoming infected with HIV. More than half of respondents (both male and females) believed that it is a person’s own fault that they became infected with HIV. Two-thirds of respondents believed that most people with HIV/AIDS could have avoided it.