(ETX Daily Up) – Screening, treatment, means of protection, risky practices, impact of the disease… Young people consider themselves less and less informed regarding HIV/AIDS, reveals a survey. An observation which pushes Sidaction to demand “an urgent and effective application of the three compulsory sessions of comprehensive sexuality education in middle school and high school”.
Ahead of the Sidaction* weekend, which will be held from March 25 to 27, 2022, the association for the fight once morest AIDS presents the results of a survey on information and prevention of the virus among the youngest, French aged 15 to 24. And the result seems final. With a few exceptions, the survey lifts the veil on a lack of knowledge of the disease, and everything that surrounds it, from treatments to screening through practices considered – or not – at risk.
A lack of information…
Nearly seven out of ten French people (69%) feel well informed regarding HIV and AIDS, but also regarding its modes of transmission, its treatments, and the means used to prevent it. A figure up (very) slightly compared to last year (67%), but down sharply compared to 2009 (89%), showing a flagrant deficit for more than a decade. The survey reveals a lack of knowledge of certain subjects surrounding the disease, from the existence of female condoms (39% say they are poorly informed) to the possibility of carrying out a self-test for HIV (63%) through the places in which it is is possible to get tested (51%).
It must be said that nearly a quarter of the young people questioned (24%) admit that they have never benefited from specific teaching on the disease, whether in college, high school, or even later. As a result, they turn first to the internet for information (29% to websites, 15% to social networks), before parents or family (22%), the doctor (20 %), or the health professionals they have the opportunity to approach in the school setting (15%).
… that affects their practices
This difficult access to reliable information has consequences not only on certain stereotypes surrounding HIV/AIDS, but also on the sexual practices of young people and the means used to prevent the transmission of the virus. If they are aware that the use of a condom, male or female, and preventive and emergency treatments are effective in preventing the transmission of HIV/AIDS, certain received ideas seem to die hard. More than a fifth of the panel (19%) consider that the morning following pill is also effective in protecting once morest HIV/AIDS. The same goes for taking the classic contraceptive pill (18%), the use of an intimate hygiene product (18%), and even a paracetamol tablet (13%).
The survey also shows a need to inform the youngest regarding certain risks of transmission of the AIDS virus. Aware that it can be transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse with an HIV-positive person, or by coming into contact with the blood of an HIV-positive person, the young people surveyed also believe – wrongly – that the AIDS virus can be transmitted by kissing an HIV-positive person (23%), using public toilets (18%), drinking from a glass of an HIV-positive person (17%), or even shaking their hand (9%).
Last but not least, more than a third of respondents (37%) say they are not afraid of AIDS. Most of them (35%) justify this absence of fear by the means of protection used, or more simply by the absence of sexual intercourse (9%), but a minority also highlights the fact that the disease treats thanks to treatments (8%), that it is no longer fatal (5%), that it is a disease like any other (5%), or that they do not feel concerned (5%).
* This survey was conducted online by Ifop for Sidaction, between February 2 and 9, 2022, with a sample of 1,002 people, representative of the French population aged 15 to 24.
Christine Pellissier
