Use of Condom and Knowledge of Own HIV Status among Undergraduates of Ten Tertiary Schools in Ekiti and Ondo States Southwest, Nigeria | Chapter 16 | Theory and Applications of Microbiology and Biotechnology Vol. 2
Bearing a burden of 66.7% of all global
cases, HIV infection has become a major health challenge in Africa in general
and sub-Sahara Africa in particular. For this reason, the battle to halt
HIV/AIDS’ spread in Africa, particularly in Nigeria is being fought on
different fronts, carefully considering all factors that can help bring down
prevalence rate and curb the spread of the disease. Two of such fronts are
advocacies for the consistent and right use of a condom, as well as voluntary
testing to know own HIV status. In this study, 100 undergraduates each were
sampled consecutively from ten tertiary schools in Ekiti and Ondo States of
Nigeria, so as to evaluate the level of use of condom and knowledge of own HIV
status among this group of youths and young adults. The study was conducted
through the use of self-administered questionnaires among the enrolled
undergraduates. The 1000 subjects comprised 421(42.1%) males and 57.1 (57.1%)
females, while 8 (0.8%) did not disclose their gender. Five hundred and twenty-one
(52.1%) of the subjects fell within the 21-30 age-bracket, 407 (40.7%) were
20years and below, 22 (2.2%) were within the 31-40 age-bracket, while 12(1.2%)
were 40years and above. Thirty-eight (3.8%) did not disclose their age-bracket.
Two hundred and four (20.4%) of the subjects always used condom, 169 (16.9%)
used it occasionally, 139 (13.9%) never used during sexual intercourse,
403(40.3%) indicated that the use of condom wasn’t applicable to them (this
group was presumed to be sexually inactive/inert), while 85 (8.5%) didn’t
volunteer information about their sexual activity. Findings also revealed that
majority, 564(56.4%) of the subjects did not know their HIV status, 51(5.1%)
were indifferent about their HIV status, 25 (2.5%) did not disclose if they
knew their HIV status or not. However, 360 (36%) knew their HIV status. With
more than half of the study population not knowing their HIV status, it is
therefore suggested that health policy-makers should scale-up advocacy
activities to persuade the general populace in Nigeria to go for voluntary
testing.
Author(s) Details
Dr. G. O. Daramola
Department of Medical
Microbiology and Parasitology, Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State,
Nigeria.
Dr. H. A. Edogun
Department of Medical
Microbiology and Parasitology, Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State,
Nigeria.
A. O. Ojerinde B.MLS, M.Sc
University Health Centre,
Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
A. A. Agbaje
Department of Haematology
and Blood Transfusion, Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State,
Nigeria.
O. O. Ogunfolakan
Department of Medical
Laboratory Science, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
O. O. Ajala
Department of Haematology
and Blood Transfusion, Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State,
Nigeria.
A. Egbebi
College of Medicine, Ekiti
State University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
E. F. Akerele
Department of Medical
Microbiology and Parasitology, Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital,
Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
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