Volume 2 • Issue 10 • 1000187 J Community Med Health Educ ISSN: 2161-0711 JCMHE, an open access journal Community Medicine & Health Education Sugathan and Swaysi, J Community Med Health Educ 2012, 2:10 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2161-0711.1000187 Research Article Open Access Knowledge about HIV/AIDS among Premedical Students in Misurata, Libya and the Effectiveness of a Health Education Intervention Sandheep Sugathan 1 * and Mohammed Swaysi 2 1 University Kuala Lumpur - Royal College of Medicine Perak, Ipoh, Malaysia 2 Misurata University, Misurata, Libya Abstract Introduction: Even though anti-retroviral treatments for HIV/AIDS can slow down the course of the disease, there is no known cure or vaccine. Preventing the infection is the key aim in controlling the AIDS pandemic. A health education intervention was conducted among pre medical students in Misurata to improve their knowledge about HIV/ AIDS and the effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated. Objectives of study: To assess the knowledge of premedical students about HIV/AIDS and to evaluate the effectiveness of a health education intervention. Method of study: An awareness study, followed by a health education intervention on HIV/AIDS was done among 160 premedical students of Misurata, Libya for a period of 4 months. Assessment of baseline knowledge was followed by a health education intervention. Effectiveness of intervention was evaluated and improvement in post test knowledge was analyzed using t-test. Results: Knowledge about the cause of AIDS, incubation period, ability of disease to make its patient exposed to other infections, absence of complete cure and the presence of Preventive methods were excellent and knowledge about the ability to cause cancers, absence of an effective vaccine and 100% fatality were good on pretest evaluation. Knowledge about the modes of transmission of disease and the ways by which AIDS can not be transmitted were poor on pre-test evaluation. Knowledge about all aspects was excellent on post-test evaluation. Difference between pre and post test mean scores was found to be highly signiicant. Conclusions: The health education intervention was effective. *Corresponding author: Dr. Sandheep Sugathan, Senior Lecturer in Public health, University Kuala Lumpur - Royal College of Medicine Perak, Ipoh, Malaysia, Tel: 006-0175909289; E-mail: drsandheep@gmail.com Received November 01, 2012; Accepted November 27, 2012; Published November 29, 2012 Citation: Sugathan S, Swaysi M (2012) Knowledge about HIV/AIDS among Premedical Students in Misurata, Libya and the Effectiveness of a Health Education Intervention. J Community Med Health Educ 2:187. doi:10.4172/2161- 0711.1000187 Copyright: © 2012 Sugathan S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Keywords: Knowledge about HIV/AIDS; Premedical students; Efectiveness; Health education intervention Introduction he human immunodeiciency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that infects cells of the immune system, destroying or impairing their function. As the infection progresses, the immune system becomes weaker, and the person becomes more susceptible to infections. he most advanced stage of HIV infection is acquired immunodeiciency syndrome (AIDS) [1]. AIDS is now a pandemic [2]. An estimated 33.4 million (ranging from 31.1 to 35.8 million) people were living with HIV in 2008 globally, including 2.1 million children. An estimated 2.7 million (ranging from 2.4 to 3 million) people were newly infected in 2008, including 430,000 children less than 15 years of age [3]. As of 2009, AVERT estimated 1.8 million annual deaths due to AIDS [4]. Although treatments for AIDS and HIV can slow down the course of the disease, there is no known absolute cure or vaccine against this deadly disease. Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection, but these drugs are expensive and routine access to antiretroviral medication is not available in all countries [5]. Preventing the infection is a key aim in controlling the AIDS pandemic. Preventing the spread of human immunodeiciency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted diseases (STD) requires a comprehensive strategy composed of high quality health care delivery systems coupled with efective, sustained and committed health education and health promotion interventions. hese individual components of a prevention program must not operate in isolation, but must work together toward the well-being of the person at risk and the community as a whole [6]. An estimated 460,000 (ranging from 400,000 to 530,000) people were living with HIV in the Middle East and North Africa at the end of 2009. he number of people newly infected has also increased over the last decade. here were 75,000 (ranging from 61,000 to 92,000) newly infected cases in 2009, more than twice the number of 36,000 (ranging from 32,000 to 42,000) in 2001. AIDS-related deaths have nearly tripled: from 8,300 in 2001 to 23,000 at the end of 2009 [7]. Exposure to contaminated drug-injecting equipments featured in the epidemics in Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Oman, the Syrian Arab Republic, and Tunisia [8]. According to a national sero‐prevalence study in 2004‐2005 conducted by the National Center for Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control, Libya conducted among 65,000 persons, using random cluster sampling, HIV prevalence in Libya was 0.13% overall (90 cases). In 2008, the National Infectious Diseases Control Center reported that the cumulative number of HIV cases in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya was 11,152, out of which 8,654 were Libyan nationals [9]. Information on knowledge about HIV is important in identifying and better understanding of populations most at risk for HIV. Many