AIDS awareness and knowledge among primary school children in Port Harcourt metropolis

The research was carried out to study the AIDS awareness and knowledge of 462 final year primary school pupils selected by multistage sampling technique from four primary school in Port Harcourt metropolis. Ninety-seven point six percent pupils reported that they had heard of AIDS. Only 47.6% knew the correct meaning of AIDS. among whom 63.2% were in private schools. Fifty nine point one percent knew that AIDS was transmitted sexually and only 1.3% knew about vertical transmission. Between 0.2-28.4% had wrong or no knowledge about the accurate route of transmission of AIDS. Limited and inaccurate knowledge of the preventive measures of AIDS were demonstrated. Sixty eight (23.8%) were not aware of any preventive measures. The pupils main source of information on AIDS was the mass media. Parents contributed to the knowledge in 8.0% of the respondents. There is therefore an urgent need to intensify and expand the ongoing AIDS campaign especially school based AIDS education programmes to primary school pupils before they enter into secondary and tertiary institutions and become influenced by the peers. Informed parents and religious leaders should also be involved in AIDS education in order to improve the knowledge of children and alter their misconceptions about AIDS transmission and prevention.