558 © 2019 Annals of Medical and Health Sciences Research Original Article Original Article How to Cite this Article: Al-Qahtani SM, et al. Evaluation of Knowledge, Attitude and Risk Perception about Human Immunodefciency Virus Infection among Dental Students in Saudi Arabia. Ann Med Health Sci Res. 2019;9: 558- 563 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‑NonCommercial‑ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non‑commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. Introduction Human immune defciency virus (HIV) was discovered in 1981 since then an epidemic infection has been spread all over the world. Globally, about 36.9 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2017, although the burden of the epidemic continues to vary considerably between countries and regions. [1] In Saudi Arabia, the total number of HIV-positive Saudi population in early 2010 was 4019 persons, with an annual incidence rate of 342 cases /year between 2001 and 2009. [2] The HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. HIV attacks the CD4 positive (CD4+) T cells, destroying the immune system. The acquired immunodefciency syndrome (AIDS) is the end stage of HIV infection. The management is based on monitoring of disease progression and involves the administration of antiretroviral therapy (ART). The health care workers are considered being at high risk for diseases transmitted through body fuids. Adding to that some infectious diseases have extended incubation periods or ‘‘window period’’ during which antibodies can’t be detected. [3] It may take 10 to 15 years for an HIV positive person to develop AIDS. [4] According to the CDC guidelines each patient is considered to be infected with a blood-borne pathogen irrespective of the known serostatus of the same. [5] Currently, the survival rate of AIDS patients is much higher than previously, due to the improvement of health care facilities. [6] Accordingly, more AIDS patients are expecting to seek dental treatment, due to the fact that oral manifestations of HIV infection are an ultimate component of disease progression. Oral lesions are common (30–80%) in patients infected by the HIV [7] The oral lesion can be, oral candidiasis, hairy leukoplakia, Kaposis sarcoma, linear gingival erythema, necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis, necrotizing ulcerative periodontitis, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which are tremendously associated with HIV infection. [8] Oral manifestations appeared when CD4 count decreases below 500 cells/mm [3] . Moreover, oral lesions found at different stages showed a very strong correlation to their respective CD4 count. [9] Infection can occur during exposure to the blood of an infected patient via needle stick or a splash to exposed mucous Evaluaton of Knowledge, A ttude and Risk Percep ton about Human Immunodefciency Virus In fecton among Dental Students in Saudi Arabia Saad M. Al-Qahtani 1 , Shahabe A. Saquib 1 *, Weam Ibrahim 1 , Ali Othman 2 , Mohammed Assiri 2 , Hamoud Al-Shari 2 and Ali Al-Qarni 2 1 Department of Periodontics and Community Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia; 2 Intern, College of Dentistry, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia Corresponding author: Shahabe A. Saquib, Department of Periodontics and Community Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia, Tel: 00966583053343; E-mail: sshahabe@kku.edu.sa; drsaquib24@gmail.com Abstract Introduction: Globally the HIV/AIDS consider being the most serious infection/ disease in the recent decades. The health care workers are considered as a high risk group for diseases transmited through body fuids. The present study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge and atitude of the dental students and inters regarding dental management of HIV infected patients. Material and methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 722 (324 males, 398 females) dental students and interns at southern and central region of Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire comprised of 16 questions consists of three main domains. Chi-square test was executed to compare the descriptive data by using SPSS (version 20.0, IBM Corporation, USA) to assess the level of knowledge atitude and risk perception towards HIV positive patients. Results: The overall response rate was 91.6%. The overall knowledge and atitude of the participants was acknowledged as poor. The diference in knowledge between the academic levels was signifcant (p-value<0.05). Female shows more positive atitude and a good level of risk perception as compared to male participants (p-value<0.00). Gradual shift in risk perception was observed among the academic levels, and the diference was statistically signifcant (p-value<0.00). Conclusion: Over all this study showed a lack in the knowledge and atitude of dental students and interns about HIV infected patients. Extensive courses and training program should be implemented in the curriculum of dental collage to improve their knowledge and atitude. Keywords: AIDS; Dental students; Knowledge; HIV; Risk perception