Young know little about HIV, AIDS: NFHS-5

NEW DELHI:  Only a quarter of the young population in India is fully aware of HIV/AIDS, and a substantial chunk still believes mosquito bites cause the infection, according to the National Family Health Survey-5.

The understanding of the serious medical disease is even lower among women than men, claims the survey. Only 22 percent of women and nearly 31 percent of men in the age group 15-24 years have comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS.  The data also showed that HIV awareness increases with age as teenagers are least knowledgeable.

Only 17 percent of women and 24 percent of men in the age group of 15-17 years have comprehensive knowledge of the dreaded disease as compared with 24 percent of women and 33 percent of men in the 23-24 years, indicating that awareness programmes about the life-threatening illness do impact behavioural change.

Also shocking is that many Indians still think that mosquito bites can transmit HIV/AIDS, and the disease can spread by sharing food with a person living with HIV/AIDS. The survey said only 54 percent of women and 64 percent of men know that HIV/AIDS cannot be transmitted by mosquito bites, while 45 percent of women and 59 percent of men know that HIV/AIDS cannot be spread by sharing food with a person who has AIDS. 

The data also showed that two-thirds of women (67 percent) and 71 percent of men know that a healthy-looking person can have HIV/AIDS. “The percentage of young women with comprehensive knowledge about HIV has decreased from 22 percent in NFHS-4 (2015-16) to 20 percent in NFHS-5 (2019-21), and the proportion of young men with comprehensive knowledge has declined in the same period, from 32 percent to 29 percent,” the survey said. In India, 87 percent of women and 94 percent of men have heard of HIV or AIDS, and the percentage is highest in the southern states, with over 90 percent of the population knowing about the disease.