Knowledge of the Most-at-Risk Populations about Human Immunodeficiency Virus Prevention

Abstract

Problem statement: In this study we tried to assess the knowledge of general population (15-45 years), injecting drug users, female sex workers, MSM and male prisoners about HIV prevention in Iran. Approach: Respondents are asked the following set of prompted questions: (a) Can we reduce the risk of HIV transmission by having sex with only one uninfected partner who has no other partners? (b) Can we reduce the risk of getting HIV by using a condom every time we have sex? (c) Can have HIV a healthy-looking person? (d) Can a person get HIV by sharing food with someone who is infected? (e) Can a person get HIV from mosquito bits? Results: In this study at compared with the resent studies we saw that, the general knowledge on the effect of consistent and correct use of condom as means of HIV prevention has been increased. There is a decrease in the number of the youth that assume sting of a mosquito can transmit HIV. There were no remarkable change in the perception of the thought that HIV is not transmitted through eating and the possibility of people living with HIV are safe. Conclusion: The current meta-analysis indicated that the awareness on the positive effect of condomization on HIV prevention has increased in recent years, but it is still far from being satisfactory and other basic knowledge about HIV has not improved and there is still a substantial gap with the desired figures.