Socio-cultural realities and importance of interventional of AIDS education

Due to very high standards of education in Kerala, as compared to other states of India there is no proper and specific AIDS education in the state. But the disease is fast spreading in the state, mainly among the adolescents.

Objectives were to check if high standards of education correspond with good knowledge about STD/AIDS and increase in knowledge about AIDS by specific AIDS education.

The study was done among 800 high school students in Kerala. We prepared a questionnaire containing 20 questions, the answers to which an adolescent belonging to that age group ought to know. We did pre and post-interventional assessment using the same questionnaire. We conducted 26 detailed intervention classes of AIDS -its general features, mode of transmission, clinical features, prevention etc each lasting for about 45 minutes. We had an interactive session, where students were given an opportunity to clear their doubts regarding the topic.

The achievements that Kerala made in the educational front are seen reflected in the pre-interventional assessment, which stood at 45.1%. Pre­-interventional study also pointed out that the awareness was least regarding clinical features & mode of transmission of the disease. Mean score after the intervention program was found to be 83.5%.

A society with high literacy rate and standards of education cannot expect to be well informed about AIDS. A grass root level specific AIDS education will bring the desired results of the interventional programs, also that can make significant improvement in the knowledge of the community. This shows that all the countries are equally vulnerable to AIDS in the absence of specific AIDS/STD education.