Abstract
BackgroundAcquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has become an important public health hazard in Iran. It is believed that AIDS-related knowledge does not necessarily translate into behavior modification. Hence, it has been suggested that culturally appropriate educational campaigns should be implemented to obtain satisfactory outcomes. Here, we evaluated the female high school students' attitude towards HIV/AIDS in Tabriz, Iran to assess the cultural needs for the related educational programs and to discover sources of information about AIDS.ResultsAnonymous, self-administered questionnaires were filled by the young female students. Among 300 students, 91% agreed that being an HIV carrier should not be an obstacle to obtaining education and employment. Moreover, 72.5% of the students declared that the community should be informed of HIV-positive people. In addition, one-tenth declared that they would feel extremely uncomfortable towards their HIV infected classmate. In addition, only 16% of the students stated that they would continue to shop at HIV infected grocer's store. The mass media and the experts were the major source and the most reliable source of information about AIDS, respectively.ConclusionTabrizian female students have overall negative attitudes towards HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS related educational campaigns should target the students, society and the families with emphasizing the leading roles of health staff.
Highlights
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has become an important public health hazard in Iran
The current study aimed at evaluating the female high school students' attitude towards Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/AIDS in Tabriz, Iran to assess the cultural needs for the related educational programs and to discover the sources of information about AIDS
The overall findings from this study indicated a relatively negative attitude towards HIV/ AIDS among Tabrizian female high school students
Summary
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has become an important public health hazard in Iran. In Iran, the first case of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection was reported in 1987. This was followed by a rapid increase in the number of infected cases [2]. In 2004, there were officially 6532 Iranians living with HIV/ AIDS, of which 95% were male [3]. This figure was increased to 16090 HIV positive individuals The issue has become an important public health problem and several AIDSrelated educational programs have been targeted on various populations including university and high school students [1,3]
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