Youth still HIV ignorant

By Charles Kazooba, The East African
Published in HIV/AIDS News by LearnScapes, issue 294
24/03/2008

Nairobi – This month, Uganda marked 25 years since the first case of HIV and Aids was diagnosed in the country.

Two decades of HIV and Aids awareness campaigns may have helped reduce prevalence rates in Uganda, but a large segment of the population still remains ignorant about how the disease is transmitted. Recently released findings from a study conducted by the Makerere Institute of Social Research show that one in 10 adolescents still believe sex between an HIV-positive male and an HIV-negative virgin cures the former of the infection.

The research also notes that four in 10 females and males aged between 15 and 19 believe that the virus can be acquired through a mosquito bite, and 17 per cent of females and 11 per cent of males believe that the virus can be acquired by sharing food with an HIV-positive person. In addition, one in 10 young women believe that HIV can be transmitted through witchcraft or supernatural means.

"As a result of this uneven level of knowledge, only 28 per cent of women aged 15-19 who have heard of HIV and Aids, and 36 per cent of comparable young men, know all of the following facts about the disease: That the risk of HIV transmission can be reduced by having only one, faithful, uninfected partner and by using condoms; a healthy-looking person can have HIV; and a person cannot get HIV from a mosquito bite or by sharing food with someone who is infected," the study report notes.

The report, Protecting the Next Generation in Uganda that was submitted to parliament early this month, suggests that one per cent of 15-19 year-old females and males have not heard of HIV and Aids. The survey says that in Uganda, 20 per cent of women aged between 20 and 24 and 10 per cent of men of the same age bracket have had sexual intercourse by age 15; by age 18, 64 per cent of young women and 50 per cent of young men had had a sexual experience.

HIV and Aids to date has no cure despite worldwide efforts to discover a vaccine. The first HIV and Aids cases in Uganda and most probably in Africa were diagnosed in November 1982 at Kasensero fish landing site in Rakai district. Soon Uganda had become the epicentre of the HIV and Aids pandemic.

Over the next 10 years, HIV in Uganda spread unchecked and by 1992, prevalence rates reached the highest ever recorded, with a peak level among pregnant women at 30.2 per cent.

HIV and Aids began as an epidemic primarily spread by adults through heterosexual relations. However, transmission include through mother-to-child infection during childbirth. More than a quarter (28 per cent) of 15-17 year-olds in Uganda have lost one or both parents to HIV and Aids.

Uganda's sex education policy is ambiguous, and the quality of available information is unknown. Only about half of sexually experienced 15-19 year-olds (49 per cent of females and 47 per cent of males) have received sex education in school. On the other hand, the findings show that urban teenagers and those from wealthy families have the highest level of HIV and Aids knowledge.

Further, only 28 per cent of young women and 37 per cent of young men are aware that condoms prevent the spread of HIV. "Young women are more likely than their male counterparts to report using condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancy, rather than to prevent HIV or STIs," the study report notes.

The report presupposes that Ugandan women aged 15-18 who have lost both parents or have lost one parent, but do not live with the surviving one, are more likely than others not to attend school, which in turn is associated with adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes.

Early sex among teenagers has been attributed to the exchange of gifts and money. "Gifts and money are an intrinsic and pervasive part of adolescent sexual relationships," says the research findings. The findings show that three quarters of unmarried, sexually experienced women aged 15-19 claim to have received gifts or money in exchange for sex.

Accordingly, only 71 per cent of women aged 15-19 and 73 per cent of their male counterparts have heard of any other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). And it is reported that only urban adolescents and those from wealthy families are most likely to be able to name any sexually transmitted infection other than HIV.
According to the findings, even among those teenagers who have heard of other sexually transmitted infections, 16 per cent of adolescent women and 19 per cent of adolescent men are unable to name any possible symptoms of an STI.