AIDSWEEKLY Plus; Monday, July 13 & 20, 1998
Daniel J. DeNoon, Senior Editor
A survey of high-school students reveals an alarming frequency of unsafe sex, misconceptions about HIV and AIDS, and the kind of blame- the-victim attitudes that have preceded AIDS outbreaks in other vulnerable areas.
"The Republic of Georgia offers a great opportunity to prevent the spread of HIV," said Carlos del Rio of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. "In many respects the attitudes of students there are similar to those of students in the United States. The differences stem from the fact that HIV/AIDS is a new disease in Georgia and that schools there do not offer sex education programs."
Del Rio reported the survey results in a poster presentation to the XII World AIDS Conference, held June 28-July 3, 1998, in Geneva, Switzerland.
The researchers administered a self-report survey to 464 students (age range 15 to 18 years; 250 female, 214 male) attending 10 randomly selected high schools in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.
The great majority of the students - 60.8 percent - reported engaging in sexual activity by the age of 16. Only 30.6 percent of these students said they had ever used a condom.
More than a fourth of the students (28.6 percent) did not think a condom could protect against HIV infection; 12 percent though a condom was unnecessary if partners loved one another. Seventy-six percent of the students believed that a condom could be reused after washing.
AIDS is expected to spread in the Republic of Georgia because there has been an increase in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), increased intravenous drug use, and increased commercial sex trade.
Alarmingly, the students did not consider themselves vulnerable: 72 percent said that AIDS occurs only in homosexuals, prostitutes, and drug users. The majority said people with HIV infection should be isolated, and that they would shun other students known to be HIV positive.
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