Care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS

Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic – June 2000Figure 15. Casual sex and condom use, by educational status,Mozambique60respondents reporting the behaviour (%)5040302010casual sex in the past yearcondom use at last casual sex00-2 3-6 7-9 10+number of years respondent spent in schoolSource: Agha S, et al. The promotion of safer sex among high-risk individuals in Mozambique, PopulationServices International, USA, 1999education women had, the less casual sex they had. These results suggest thatthe best-educated people in the countries hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic maybe shifting towards less risky behaviour. If this is true, it has encouraging implicationsfor the future course of the epidemic.The UNAIDS analysis did not take into account the content of the school curriculumwith regard to life skills or HIV. Carefully designed studies to evaluate theeffect of sex education programmes in school on sexual behaviour and exposureto HIV are now under way in several African countries. Experience has alreadyshown, however, that when AIDS prevention programmes include a strong schoolbasedawareness and skills training component, schooling can encourage safebehaviour. In Uganda, as Figure 16 shows, although the prevalence of HIV infectionamong young pregnant women rose with level of education in the earlier yearsof the epidemic, the trend has been reversed in more recent years. While fallingHIV infection rates have been seen in young women of all educational levels, thefall has been most dramatic among the better educated. Among young womenwith a secondary education, the infection rate in 1995–1997 was nearly half that inthe early 1990s.One thing is clear: education and information are fundamental human rights. Whenchildren and young people are denied the basic information, education and skills todeal with HIV – whether because of religious values, social mores or cultural preferences– they are that much less empowered to reduce their own risk of infection.44