Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Youth towards HIV/AIDS in Mali, West Africa

Abstract

HIV prevention requires good knowledge, attitudes and practices in order to avoid its spread and multiple re-infections. In this respect, health care givers are required to provide clear and relevant information and instructions on HIV. Youth are particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS due to the fact that they are not sufficiently prepared for address problems related to their sexuality and also because they do not have enough real knowledge about HIV and AIDS. The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge, attitudes and practices of youth towards HIV/AIDS in Mali. This report is a review of the knowledge, attitudes and practices of participants with regards to HIV/AIDS. A comprehensive literature review was conducted for topics from the following electronic databases: PUBMED, HINARI, GOOGLE and GOOGLE SCHOLAR. This review included published studies which are relevant to the topic in discussion. My search terms included knowledge, attitudes, practices and risk factors for HIV/AIDS in Mali and sub-Saharan Africa. A manual search of journals was also conducted by looking at original articles relevant to the topic under discussion and which were published in English. From this review most of the studies showed that participants heard about HIV/AIDS. Men have better knowledge than women but have negative attitude and risky practice than women. The level of knowledge in general is high but, does not seem to have any practical impact on attitudes towards HIV / AIDS.