Sex, AIDS and mosquito bites
charukesi December 12th, 2005
Students fear AIDS could spreads through kissing, says report in todays’ ToI. While students were generally found to be knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS, the survey found they had misconceptions about transmission. A large number of believed that kissing (40%), hugging (29.7%) and sharing of clothes (25.4%) caused viral transmission. A shocking 45.1% thought that mosquito bites could cause transmission.
Here is more - Sharing of toilets and eating out with HIV-infected persons was an issue with the students with up to 25.4% saying that it could cause viral transmission.
This from a survey conducted by the Wockhardt-Harvard Medical International HIV/AIDS Education and Research Foundation (WHARF) based on interviews with 1,179 junior college boys and girls. If this is the knowledge level about transmission of AIDS among the young who are the main target group for this disease - global figures indicate that 50 percent of persons infected every year are below 25 years of age… Makes me wonder about the effectiveness of AIDS and HIV related communication campaigns that we see all the time.
Scary…
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I tried looking for the link to this article on the ToI website but couldn’t find it - I have copied this from their epaper. However, I did find this on their home page - Urmila Matondkar at the Dubai International Film Festival. Oh, and this too - Big B watches Ek Ajnabee in hospital. Why am I not surprised? Surely, Urmila Matondkar makes for better copy than a bunch of ignorant students.
[…] I keep reading reports about misconceptions about the virus and the disease, stigma and basic ignorance… More than twenty years after the disease first reared its head, the stigma remains… Like one of Verghese’s patients who saw himself (and his wife) as innocent victims who had been infected through a blood transfusion. And by extension, other victims not so innocent…? got what they deserved… […]
[…] …the film, the survey, and the article, the general state of disinterest, the belief that it happens to some one else, the amount of money spent with little or no communication impact and finally the moral brigade that screams and shouts everytime sex education is mentioned. […]