Knowledge and Attitude of HIV/AIDS among Secondary School and College Students of Narsingdi

Abstract

HIV/ AIDS are the most serious health problem in the world. The global epidemic of HIV/AIDS is now progressing at a rapid rate among young people. Therefore, awareness is needed to control and prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS. The purpose of our study was to determine the knowledge level of school and college students of Narsingdi and assess their attitude towards HIV/AIDS patients. The study was conducted on 357 students of 3 different school and college of Narsingdi district by using a structured questionnaire. Almost all (99.88%) students had heard about HIV/AIDS. The major sources of information was educational institute (79.83%) and the second highest source was media (13.17%) . Majority of the students said that there is no treatment (62.26%) and vaccine (50.42%) available. According to most of respondents the disease can be transmitted by blood transfusion (98.22%) and mother to fetus (97.03%). Some students had misconception about the mode of transmission such as kissing and talking (22.93%), mosquito bite (21.57%), drinking and eating on same glass or plate (21.57%). Regarding the knowledge about control and prevention most of them had better knowledge. Most participants (87.39%) thought that avoiding needle share was the major mode of prevention. Most participants had positive attitude towards infected person. According to the study it can be said that knowledge about HIV/AIDS among school and college students are moderate though they have many types of misconception about it. There are chances to reduce the misconception. Different awareness program in mass media, training of teachers and proper health and sex education in school and college level are needed to increase the level of knowledge and awareness of HIV/AIDS.