AEGiS-15IAC: Evaluating the use of condoms as a means of preventing HIV in Ghana.

15th International AIDS Conference

Bangkok, Thailand - July 11-16, 2004

Evaluating the use of condoms as a means of preventing HIV in Ghana.

Int Conf AIDS 2004 Jul 11-16; 15:(abstract no. D10161)

Addae AB
University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

BACKGROUND: In the bid to prevent HIV/AIDS in Ghana, the use of condoms has been greatly advocated as a means of containing the epidemic. This study was to evaluate people's attitude towards condoms.

METHOD: 400 people made up of sex workers, married people, students and health care workers were sampled for this study. Informal discussions, unstructured questionnaires and semi focused interviews were used to gather information from respondents about their sexual behaviors, use of condoms and what they feel and think about condom use.

RESULTS: The study revealed that about 80% of the married couples may not use condom at all, where as 15% of them may use condom in order to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Less than 5% of them may use it for the prevention of HIV. With regard to the sex workers, about 75% of them are willing to forego condoms in order to please their clients for increased monetary charges. The information gathered from the students showed that 70% of them are willing to use condoms before having affairs with the opposite sex. But it happens that out of this 70%, 65% of them use condoms for contraceptive purposes, thus to prevent pregnancies. Less than 5% of them think about condoms in terms of HIV. Again it was gathered from the students that, as much as 70% of them are willing to use condoms, majority of them end up not using them at all because their sex lives are unplanned. Even most of them will not bother themselves to go for condoms even if it's two minutes away from them, once they want to have affair. Health care workers gave divergent views on the use of condoms in preventing HIV. One issue that was also common among all respondents was their lack of trust for condoms as most believe it can get destroyed in the process of love making.

CONCLUSION: The study showed that as much as condom use can help prevent HIV, its use as far as control of HIV is concern is very minimal, as such effective ways of containing HIV should looked into.

Keywords: AEGIS, Condoms, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, HIV Seropositivity, HIV Infections, Sexual Behavior, Prostitution, Condoms, Female, Pregnancy, Unwanted, Contraceptive Agents, Pharmaceutical Preparations, Ghana, Humans, Pregnancy, Female

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D10161