AWARENESS OF HIV/AIDS AMONG RURAL UNMARRIED GIRLS: A COMMUNITY BASED CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Dr. Inamdar I.F,
I/C Urban Health Training Centre,
Shivajinagar, Nanded – 431601.
Email – ifinamdar@rediffmail.com

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION:  The existence of HIV/AIDS poses a serious challenge to human being and its impact on a country is tremendous. Globally, almost of a quarter of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are under the age of 25 years. Among them basically young girls are more susceptible because of unawareness. METHODOLOGY: A community based cross-sectional study was done among rural girls of age group 18-25 years of age who were unmarried. Data collection was done by semi structured predesigned questionnaire. Data was entered in Microsoft excel and analysed for frequency and percentage. RESULTS: About 100% of girls have ever heard of HIV.43.33% said that some microorganism is responsible for HIV. Most common route according to them was syringes and needles (65%). Misconceptions about HIV/AIDS was also prevailing among them as various modes of transmission mentioned by them were mosquito bite (26.67%), sharing food (23.33%) and by touch (21.67%), and for prevention most of them said it can be prevented by using condom during intercourse (40%).

KEY WORDS: HIV, AIDS, Rural girls