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HIV/AIDS Awareness Amongst Female Adolescents in Owerri
Abstract
Objective: The objective of this study was to ascertain the level of awareness, knowledge and attitude of female secondary school students to the disease.
Method: Pre tested structured questionnaires were distributed to randomly selected female students of four secondary schools in Owerri .
Results: The mean age of the students was 15.7 years. All the students knew about the disease getting most of their information from television (31.7%) and radio (27.2%).The aetiological agent of HIV/AIDS was known by 76.3% of the students while blood test was correctly identified as the best method of diagnosis. Only 49.8% mentioned the condom as a method of prevention .The routes of transmission mentioned were blood transfusion 91%,sharing of needles and syringes 91.9% and sexual intercourse 85.2% and mother to child transmission by 69.3% of the students. Methods of prevention of mother to child transmission mentioned were the use of anti retroviral drugs in pregnancy( 41.6%),avoidance of breast feeding( 53%), giving anti retroviral
drugs to the newborn (34.2%) and delivery by caesarean section( 19.4%) .The use of strong antibiotics in pregnancy was wrongly identified as a method of preventing mother to child transmission by 47.1% of the students..
Conclusion: The level of awareness is high but there still exists large gaps in knowledge which suggest that more effort should be put into imparting more detailed information to the students .
