The Knowledge Related to HIV/ AIDS Among the People Visiting Rasht Health's Week Fair

Abstract AIDS is the most serious health problem in present century. Every day, approximately 7,000 people are infected with HIV around the world. Our country is not immune of worldwide spread of this disease. The purpose of this study was to assess the level of knowledge related to HIV/AIDS in people who visited the site of Rasht health`s week exhibition. This cross - sectional study was carried out using a questionnaire consisting of two sections. The samples were 155 cases of 12years of age and over. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics by spss software version 16 The results showed that the majority of samples(75%) were females andunder 20 years (mean age 27.76±13.21). Also, in terms of job categories, the majority(37%) of them were student, and regardingthe accommodation, the majority (95%) lived in city The results indicated that the level of knowledge regarding the understanding and treatment of disease in the majority of cases(74%), and in relation to the prevention of disease transmission in 66% of cases were good. 57%of individuals answered correctly to the most common way of transmission from patient to others, and considerable percentage of them had misconceptions in relation to transmission ways so that theyexpressed non transmission ways as transmission routes (84% sitting the contaminated, 82% handshake with an infected person, 65% kissing, 35% bites insect and 38%, blood and body fluids of an infected person). There was a significant relationship between the knowledge and educational level (P =0.05) and the information history (P =0.002). Despite good knowledge regarding prevention and treatment of AIDS, there are still misconceptions and information deficiencies about transmission, and this highlights the role of related organizations to plan in order to improve awareness of community.