Basic HIV / AIDS Facts

Educational Goal 1 Questions – Basic Facts about HIV/AIDS

Thee first goal of the WorLD HIV/AIDS Collaborative Project was ensuring students and teachers under basic facts about HIV and AIDS. Participants in the project first answered were responsible for understanding the below questions.

Basic Facts - The Questions:

1. What is HIV, what is AIDS, and what is the difference between the two?
2. How long can someone have HIV before they get AIDS?How long do most people have AIDS before they die?
3. How is HIV transmitted?; How is it NOT transmitted? What are some of the myths about how it is spread?
4. How can HIV transmission be prevented?
5. What are the HIV/AIDS statistics in your country? How does this compare to the rest of the world?
   

Do you know the answers to the above questions?
How do you know that your answers are correct?

Educational Goal 1: What did students and teachers say about basic facts about HIV/AIDS?

1) What is HIV, what is AIDS, and what is the difference between the two?

HIV is the virus and AIDS the disease. HIV destroys the human immune system and develops into AIDS by making the body vulnerable to other diseases. Being HIV positive does not mean that someone has AIDS, yet. Most WorLD collaborative project participants understood these basic facts.

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2) How long can someone have HIV before they get AIDS? How long do most people have AIDS before they die?

Participants were a bit confused about the timing between HIV and AIDS, AIDS and death. This confusion is important to get rid of, so that youth understand that someone can look healthy for years with HIV and still pass on the virus.

Most students and teachers knew that people live an average of two years after developing AIDS, but some confused the timing between HIV and AIDS and AIDS and death, stating that the time between AIDS and death can be ten or even fifteen years. Unfortunately, most of the participants with this misunderstanding are from Zimbabwe, which has one of the top three rates of HIV prevalence in the world.

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3) How is HIV transmitted? How is it not transmitted? What are some of the myths about how it is spread?

Most participants knew that HIV is transmitted through sex, blood, and from mother to child during pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. Students and teachers could list many ways that blood could transmit HIV--through needles and razors, even organ transplants.

In addition, most participants understood how HIV is NOT transmitted: swimming pools, sharing a house, shaking hands, hugging, sport, school, mosquitoes, or sharing transport, food or water.

AND, many students and teachers could state a number of myths about HIV/AIDS, including: that caring for someone with AIDS transmits HIV, and that HIV is caused by sharing house, mosquitoes, witches, or coughing, or that it affects adults only.

Unfortunately, WorLD teachers and students still have many misconceptions about how HIV is transmitted, and still believe some of the myths about AIDS. Issues to be cleared up include:

• The role of kissing
• Saliva, sweat, tears, urine, mosquitos, insects and animals present no threat from HIV
• Women who have sex with women are much more unlikely to encounter HIV than men who have sex with men
• AIDS is caused by witchcraft
• People catch HIV by having sex with animals

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4) How can HIV transmission be prevented?

WorLD students and teachers have a basic understanding of HIV prevention, but need clearer information on breastfeeding and condoms. Some of the ways that participants said that HIV can be prevented include:

• Abstinence
• Condoms
• Mutual faithfulness
• Gloves
• Not sharing needles or razors
• Avoiding multiple sex partners
• Avoiding commercial sex workers
• Screening blood

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5) What are the HIV/AIDS statistics in your country? How does this compare to the rest of the world?

Most WorLD participants know that Africa is the continent most affected by AIDS. However, there is confusion about HIV/AIDS statistics, especially prevalence rate.

According to the UNAIDS Report released at the 13th International AIDS Conference in July 2000, these are some statistics for each country:

Students and teachers also suffer from a common misconception – that if only people had more information, AIDS would go down. Unfortunately, it is not ignorance that causes AIDS, but behavior, and in Africa, especially sexual behavior.

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