Abstract
Context: In Burkina Faso, there are young HIV-serodiscordant partners who want to get married and wish to procreate. Objectives: The purpose of this research was: 1) to assess the sexual behaviour of young people in Burkina Faso, 2) to estimate their knowledge about the modes of HIV transmission, 3) to appreciate the cultural reasons of the desire to procreate among HIV serodiscordant couples and 4) to draw some bioethical lessons. Methods: From April to Septemr 2009, the survey on HIV and reproductive health in Burkina Faso carried out with 815 young people. Among them, 407 were females and 408 males (average age: 23.59 ± 2.99). They have voluntarily agreed to answer a questionnaire which gave the following results. Results: This study shows that young people in Burkina Faso had their first sexual intercourse at 18.99 ± 2.76 years, 23.68% (193/815) were afraid to be tested for HIV, 30.92% (252/815) have not yet been tested for HIV-serostatus and 39.75% (324/815) of them have never heard of HIV vertical transmission. Despite the fact that 36.81% (300/815) are HIV negative, they would be willing to marry the beloved HIV positive person and amongst them, 28.34% (231/815) want a child even with an HIV positive person beloved. Conclusion: So far, there is no effective vaccine against HIV. However, it is clear that Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART) associated with ethical and cultural good options can contribute to reduce the spread of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Highlights
Nowadays, 33 million people are leaving with HIV/ AIDS in the world [1]
This study shows that young people in Burkina Faso had their first sexual intercourse at 18.99 ± 2.76 years, 23.68% (193/815) were afraid to be tested for HIV, 30.92% (252/815) have not yet been tested for HIV-serostatus and 39.75% (324/815) of them have never heard of HIV vertical transmission
The analyses and interpretations of the collected data show: 1) A link between ignorance of HIV transmission, traditional culture, sexual promiscuity and propagation of HIV/AIDS among young people in Burkina Faso: This study shows that the spread of the retroviral infection is caused by the ignorance of the mechanism of HIV transmission and juvenile sexual promiscuity
Summary
33 million people are leaving with HIV/ AIDS in the world [1]. From 1981 to today, AIDS killed 25 million people, caused more than 15 million orphans in Africa and few million widows who are rotting in poverty [2]. In Burkina Faso, 2.5% of people aged between 15 and 24 years, 2.3% of pregnant women and 16.0% of sex workers are infected by HIV [3]. No other infectious disease has caused as much physical suffering, much moral misery and comparable death of young people as AIDS did. With the advent of this new pathology which mainly ravages people who are of an age to procreate, grandparents find themselves taking the roles of fathers and mothers, for the children of their children who become orphans. If an adequate strategy of prevention is not implemented, if a judicious research of medicine is not carried out and efficient vaccines against HIV are not found, many generations of boys and girls, in the prime of life, will undeniably disappear in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Southeast Asia and in Latin America
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