THE IMPACT OF HIV/AIDS AWARENESS ON YOUTH AND UNDERGRADUATE SEXUAL BEHAVIOR
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
THE STUDY’S BACKGROUND
Aids is an acronym for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Aids is a medical diagnosis for a group of illnesses caused by a specific weakness or damage to the immune system. The immune system protects the body from infections, tumors, and disease.
This immune deficiency is caused by a virus known as the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and infected people have no prior history of immunology abnormalities or any other cause of immune suppression such as chronic starvation, malnutrition, tuberculosis, or malignancies. When HIV enters the body of its victim, it multiplies and destroys the body’s immune system. HIV, by compromising the immune system, exposes the body to a wide range of diseases and infections. These infections are known as opportunistic infections.”
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a deadly disease that was first diagnosed in June 1981 by some medical doctors in the United States of America. Since then, the disease has spread all over the world at an exponential rate, with approximately 33.4 million people now infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide, with over 22 million of these people living in Africa (the Nigeria Tribute 9thDecember 19998). (UN report).
However, one of the most pitiful aspects of HIV/AIDS is that there is currently no cure. It is referred to as a pandemic outbreak because it occurs in multiple locations around the world at the same time. AIDS has killed an estimated 22 million people worldwide, with 3 million deaths recorded in 2000 alone (Awake November 8th 2002)
As a result, AIDS has been dubbed “the killer disease,” “the silent killer,” “the scourge of our time,” “the new sensation,” “the plague from God,” “the king of STDS,” “the end of the road,” “no cure,” “exterminator,” and “no respect,” to name a few. All of these are used to qualify AIDS’s destructive nature, rate of occurrence and spread, prevalence, lack of class distinction, and lack of curability. According to a United Nations (UN) report, the disease is the greatest epidemic in history.
To be aware means to be aware, to be aware of something. AIDS/HIV awareness is thus having knowledge of the body’s lethal disease. This study focuses on youth knowledge of IHV/AIDS, including its causes, effects, and transmission.
Many people still do not believe that AIDS is a reality (these people have misconceptions about nature). Misconceptions about HIV/AIDS range from the assumption that one act of sexual intercourse with an infected person cannot lead to infection, that they can recognize HIV positive persons by their appearance, that AIDS is a white man’s disease that has nothing to do with black people, and that AIDS is a threat used by adults to deter young people from fornication and immorality.
Unsterile instrument with AIDS victims, and sexual intercourse with animals, some people believe that HIV/AIDS is a strategic fiction that white men have recently fabricated against developing countries in particular in order to sell condoms and control birth rates in developing countries through the adoration of condoms and abstinence from sexual intercourse.
However, it may be assumed that there is only adequate HIV/AIDS awareness, but this is incorrect. Because most young people are aware of the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. However, because most youths are sexually active, particularly those of school age and those in tertiary institutions, they continue to engage in illicit pre-marital sex at any given opportunity.
There is evidence of a high rate of adolescent sexual contact and involvement among Nigerian students (Esian, 1974; Owuamanam, 1982). The age and rate at which Nigerian youths have their sexual experiences, as well as the increasing rate of their involvement in sexual activity, has caused widespread concern throughout the country. This leads to unwanted pregnancies, illegal abortions, the abandonment of unwanted babies, a high rate of STDA, premature deaths, prostitution, sexual exploitation and rapes, and so on.
Despite the growing concern about the dreaded disease AIDS. The understanding of how the disease is transmitted and prevented has remained hazy, particularly in Nigeria, where large segments of the population have not seen the true causes of HIV/AIDS patients. (1995, Odujirin and Akinade). As a result, the focus of this research is on the level of HIV/AIDS awareness among its youth.
The emphasis on youth is a deliberate attempt because youths form a bridge where HIV/AIDS can be adequately checked, eventually prevented, and eradicated; they make up the lower segment of the active population, and any nation’s future development depends on a healthy youthful population. According to a UN report, the most common way HIV/AIDS spreads in our communities is through sexual intercourse, and youth fall into the categories of the world’s sexually active adult age range of 15 to 49.
As previously stated, the youth do not engage in premarital or antiracial sex, but instead work as commercial sex workers (CSWS) or prostitutes. A number of them travel abroad for this purpose by any means possible, resulting in an unavoidable increase in the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Knowing that “youth are the leaders of tomorrow,” that a nation’s most valuable resource is human, and that youths make up a sizable proportion of the labor force. It is therefore critical that maximum care and massive awareness, as well as re-orientation, be given to the youth in any society in order to keep them in good health for life continuity and optimum productive output required for development.
As a result of the problems mentioned above, this study will attempt to show how many youth are aware of this scourge and how the youth respond to this awareness.
THE GOALS OF THIS STUDY
1. The study was conducted to demonstrate the effects of HIV/AIDS awareness on our youth.
2. The study would also show youth attitudes toward this deadly disease, allowing society to increase education awareness and even proper re-orientation.
3. More youth would benefit greatly from this study because it would go a long way toward preventing them from engaging in indiscriminate and other types of sexual activities.
4. The study was conducted to alter people’s perceptions of the reality of HIV/AIDS disease and its spread.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Many studies have been conducted on AIDS, particularly in terms of prevention and cure discovery. The government, non-governmental organizations (NGDs) or groups/agencies, and individuals have invested enormous financial, human, and material resources in the AIDS war. Despite these efforts, the disease has spread at an alarming rate.
It has been discovered that the majority of AIDS carriers must have contracted the disease when they were young. This is true for the majority of developed and developing countries. This is due to the fact that, while most adolescents and youths are aware, they are unaware of the consequences in terms of disease risk and severity.
This is due to the fact that there is no adequate body of information or a coherent reproductive health and Family Life Education (FLE) program in Nigeria to guide adolescents and youths into normal and responsible adulthood. Because parents now spend the majority of their time looking for means of survival and sustenance, many affluent and poor children prefer to grow up with adequate parental nurture and guidance.
This highlights the importance of having adequate knowledge about one’s own development and its implications. They are unaware of the existence of protective and promotional health measures and services, where to obtain these services, and how to use them.
HIV/AIDS awareness includes its meaning, cause, mode of transmission, method of prevention, and knowledge of its consequences; it is linked to HIV/AIDS perception. As a result, there is a need to investigate the level of HIV/AIDS awareness and perception among young people. And then determine whether their increased awareness will aid in the prevention and eventual eradication of HIV/AIDS.
DEFINITION OF SOME STUDY-RELATED TERMS
ABSTINENCE: The act of avoiding sexual intercourse with any partner; this is one of the most effective ways to protect against HIV/AIDS and other STDs.
CONDOM or SHEATH: A rubber covering worn over the male sex organ (penis) prior to sexual intercourse; it is also used for birth control and protection against other sexually transmitted diseases. It can be referred to as male contraception. Women have recently begun to use female condoms, which are known as “fermidom” in Europe. Condom use lowers the risk of veneral infection and the spread of AIDS.
AIDS is an acronym that stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a type of illness caused by a specific weakness or damage to the immune system. The immune system protects the body from infections, tumors, and diseases. This immune deficiency is caused by the human deficiency virus (HIV).
COITUS INTERRUPTUS: The practice of removing the man’s sex organ (penis) from the woman’s organ (vagina) prior to ejaculation or the completion of the sex act in order to prevent the woman from becoming pregnant. It is also referred to as the withdrawal method.
COITUS: A sexual act performed by a man and a woman, or by a male and a female.
CONTRACEPTION: It is the act or practice of preventing sex from resulting in the birth of a child, a contraceptive is a drug or any object or materials used inside or outside sex organs as a means of preventing an act of sex from resulting in the birth of a child, a contraceptive includes pills, condoms, (both male and female) cap (Dutch cap or diaphragm intrauterine device (IUD),
HEALTH: According to WHO (World Health Organization), health is “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being of the individual, not merely the absence or infirmity.” It is the condition of being sound in mind and body, particularly freedom from physical disease or pain.
Good health allows people to enjoy life and achieve the goals they have set for themselves. People must have a basic understanding of the human body and how it functions, as well as the human environment, in order to determine what will or will not help or harm their health.
PANDEMIC: This is a disease that has a large geographic spread. Occasionally, a highly contagious infectious disease sweeps through a community. This is referred to as an epidemic. Because of its global prevalence and occurrence, a pandemic outbreak occurs when an epidemic occurs in multiple locations around the world at the same time.
PERCEPTION: Perception is the way people, whether individuals or groups, see things, how they regard a phenomenon, or their beliefs about what it is like. Perception is the process by which we receive, notice, comprehend, and interpret information from our surroundings using our senses. The world around us is made up of various levels of physical energy.
Our knowledge of the world is gained through our sense organs, which connect to these energies. Factors influencing perception include receptions, brains, learning, emotion, and motivation, among other things. Emotions, needs, expectations, and learning are all reflected in our perception. Perception is more than just a physical act involving our senses of sight, smell, and hearing; it is a complex act that includes mental and psychological as well as physical aspects of behavior.
SEX EDUCATION: It is the process of forming an individual’s positive and healthy attitude toward sex. It is providing correct information to young people about the meaning functions and abuse of sexual relations, as well as assisting in the prevention of unwanted pregnancies and sexual responsibility on the youths. It also helps to eliminate prejudice and misconceptions about sex by providing young people with valuable sex knowledge.
Other related terms include health education, family life education (FLE), and HIV/AIDS education, which begins at home and involves teachers, the government, and non-governmental organizations. Sexually transmitted disease is an abbreviation for veneral disease, a disease that can be contracted primarily through sexual contact with an infected person (s). AIDS, chancroid, chlanmydia, herpes, gonorrhea, wart syphilis, trichomoniasis, and other STDs are examples.
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR: Sexual behavior refers to the various sexual acts that people engage in. Sexual intercourse between a man and a woman, oral sex, sexual intercourse between a man and another man (homosexual), and sex between a woman and another woman are examples of these (lesbian).
SEXUAL AWARENESS is the knowledge, perception, or realization of the modes, attitudes, and general behavior associated with sexual acts.
Do You Have New or Fresh Topic? Send Us Your Topic
THE IMPACT OF HIV/AIDS AWARENESS ON YOUTH AND UNDERGRADUATE SEXUAL BEHAVIOR