Teachers' attitudes towards AIDS: an explorative study is Israel

A study was held among 54 high school teachers working in one of five high schools in Holon (Israel). They filled out a questionnaire on attitudes about HIV/AIDS in general and on euthanasia in patients terminally ill with AIDS. Thirty-nine percent of the teachers answered that a pupil infected with HIV should be kept away from school. More than two-thirds would refuse to perform resuscitation on an haemophiliac HIV-positive pupil and mouth to mouth resuscitation after the student had stopped breathing during a school trip. One-third agreed with the statement that euthanasia should be forbidden even in a patient terminally ill with AIDS. Most of the teachers think that facts about AIDS should be included in the regular high school program and two-thirds agreed with putting condom dispensing machines in high schools. The teachers are interested in participation in annual seminars about AIDS. It is concluded that the Ministries of Education and Health should organize seminars on health education, including sessions on AIDS.