EFFECTS OF HEALTH EDUCATION ON BEHAVIORAL CHANGES IN, PREVENTION OF HIV/AIDS AND URINARY SCHISTOSOMIASIS

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

HIV/AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa is a very serious public health problem. Although, some approachs for adults like VCT (voluntary, counseling and testing) are effective, almost no approach exists in Sub-Saharan Africa for school children for preventing HIV infection and promoting safer sex in the official education. It is because HIV health education alone is not ready to be accepted in most schools and communities in the region.Urinary schistosomiasis is also a serious public health problem in large areas of the region, prevailing widely among school-aged children. Symptoms are easy to be identified and an effective drug is available. Health education for urinary schistosomiasis and mass-chemotherapy are accepted in many schools. and communities in the region. We tried to combine health education of the two diseases together, after conduction studies on knowledge, attitude, and practice for HIV and schistosomiasis.Although the knowledge level was high, the effective behavioral change needed to time to occur. The re-infection rate of urinary schistosomiasis was very high in the studied community of Kenya, and risky sex among high-school children in Tanzania was prevailing. Tools for evaluating the longer-term effects of health education in developing countries must be developed.