HIV/AIDS awareness, knowledge and practice in patients with sexually transmitted diseases

Patients diagnosed to have sexually transmitted diseases in one month at the Adigrat Health Centre were interviewed to determine knowledge about means of transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS and practice of high risk behaviour. In this study done in October and November 1992, of a total of 812 patients aged between 15-45 years, 60 patients (7.4%) had sexually transmitted diseases. Male to female ratio was 1.7:1. Fifty nine out of sixty patients (98.3%) knew the sexual route of HIV/AIDS transmission. 43 patients (71.7%) knew the preventive role of condoms, and 34 patients (56.7%) knew the preventive role of monogamous relationships. Only 12 patients (20%) knew nothing of the mode of transmission. An association between the knowledge of preventive methods of HIV/AIDS transmission and their practice was found only for condoms: 14/43 (33%) out of the aware group, 1/17 (6.5%) in the unaware group used condoms occasionally (P = 0.0457), whereas there was no difference between single partner-aware and single partner-unaware group in the percent with single sexual partner (41.2% vs 30.8%, P = 0.57). Though there is awareness of the existence of HIV/AIDS, its main route of transmission, and methods of prevention to some extent, a problem lies in the difficulty of changing individual sexual behavior. With the epidemic of HIV/AIDS sweeping the country, health education programmes must be evaluated for success in bringing about sexual behavioural change in the population as well as for success in imparting knowledge.