https://imcjms.com/public Ibrahim Medical College Journal of Medical Science https://imcjms.com/public/registration/journal_full_text/145 Sun, 13 Nov 2016 09:17:40 +0000 Although 93.6% of the respondents heard about AIDS (TV being the most common source), none had a good or excellent level of awareness about the disease. About mode of transmission, 20.9% had average and very few had a good level of knowledge regarding its prevention. When asked for an opinion about the country’s risk for HIV/AIDS, more than half (54.2%) had the view that the country was at a risk from the disease and nearly three quarters (72.5%) were of the opinion that mass awareness campaigns on HIV/AIDS could improve the situation. Address for Correspondence: Dr. Niru Sultana, Lecturer, Department of Community Medicine, Ibrahim Medical College, 122 Kazi Nazrul Islam, Avenue, Shahbagh, Dhaka, Bangladesh           Occupation Group# Chi-square value Average Grossly dissatisfactory 16 (84.2)* 4 (19.0) 0.001 3 (15.8) 17 (81.0)   19 21   *Percentages in parentheses. – Group I comprised of Service-holders, housewives and students, while Group II consisted of businessmen, drivers, unemployed and others.     Income (Tk) Chi-square value Average Grossly dissatisfactory 2 (10.5)* 14 (66.7) 0.004 17 (89.5) 7 (33.3)   19 21   * Percentages in parentheses.   Two-thirds (65.5%) of the respondents donated blood once in their lifetime, while 23.6% donated twice. The rest 10.9% did the same >2 times in their lifetime. Nearly two-thirds (65.7%) of the respondents got information on AIDS from television followed by newspapers, friends, and posters. Books, AIDS patients and Health workers were not found to play any significant role in enriching the respondents’ knowledge about the disease. Knowledge was associated directly with their level of education (Table 3). Table-3: Association between education and level of knowledge about HIV/AIDS Level of knowledge p-value Poor Primary-secondary 35 (64.8) 13.935 Above secondary 19 (35.2)   Total 54     ** Chi-square (c2) statistics was used to analyse the data and the level of significance was 0.05, with df 3 The respondents were asked about the mode of spread of HIV/AIDS. Of those who knew the answer, almost all of them said that one gets the infection by having sex with an infected HIV person (Table 4). Table-4: Respondents’ knowledge about mode of transmission of the disease. no How does the disease occur:   63 Through breast feeding 82.3 12 By needles/syringes 43.1 14 Transfused with HIV infected blood 1.5 – Total will not correspond to 100% because of multiple responses.       1.   Epidemiology and Basic Facts about RTI/STI and HIV/AIDS. Curriculum on RTI/STI, Urban Family Health Partnership, March 2002; p 5. 3.   UNAIDS. Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic – Executive summary. 2004; Geneva. 5.   Health and Science Bulletin: Centre for Health and Population Research, ICDDR, B, March 2005; 3(1). 7.   Bhuiya I. Hossain SMI. Streatfield K. The Population Council, South & East Asia. 1996; no. 6. 9.   Bhattacharya G, Cleland C, Holland S. Knowledge about HIV/AIDS, the perceived risk of infection and sources of information of Asian – Indian  adolescents born in USA. AIDS Care 2000; 12(2): 203–209. 2026 Ibrahim Medical College. All rights reserved.