A Study on Knowledge and Attitude of HIV/AIDS Among University Students of Bangladesh

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. University people are at high risk of HIV and AIDS infections. 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 University students in Bangladesh about HIV/AIDS and to support government efforts to control the spread of HIV and AIDS. The survey was conducted on 1003 different university students in Dhaka city by using a pre-structured questionnaire. All of the respondents have heard about the term HIV/AIDS. The major sources of information were media (63.5%) and educational institute (36.6%). Majority of the students said that there is no treatment (60.10%) and vaccine (63%) available. According to most of respondents the disease can be transmitted by unprotected sex (94.2%), mother to fetus (86.4%), sharing infected needles or syringe (90.2%), blood transfusion (92.1%) and breast feeding (69.1%). Some respondents said it can be transmitted by razor sharing (40.2%) and medical or dental procedure (30.1%). Some students had misconception about the transmission. About 22% students said it can be transmitted by mosquito bite. Regarding the knowledge about control and prevention most of them had better knowledge. Most participants had positive attitude towards infected person. The study suggested that to reduce the misconception, and increase awareness education and intervention programs are needed to increase the level of knowledge and awareness of HIV/AIDS.