SEXUAL BEHAVIOR, KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE TOWARDS HIV/AIDS AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN OGHARA TOWN, DELTA STATE, NIGERIA

The research was carried out to study sexual behavior, knowledge and attitude towards HIV/AIDs among six senior secondary school of age 12 – 20 years which was selected by a random sampling method. Ninety-seven percents of the students heard of HIV/AIDs, 84.7% reported it causes death and 18.7% reported there is a cure for HIV/AIDs. Twenty-three percent of the students have had their first sexual intercourse within mean age of 15.60 ± 2.30. Of those that have sexual intercourse, 66% have a regular partner while 34% do not have. Of the 47 students (23%) who became sexually active, 15 (31.9%) had sexual intercourse three months before the survey, 25 students (53.2%) cannot remember the number of times they had sex in the past three months. The use of condom was reported in 57.4% of the sexual active students while others did not see the need of using it. There was a high level of knowledge about ways of preventing HIV transmission. However, a considerable portion of the students harbored incorrect beliefs regarding mosquito bites. In conclusion, there is a pressing need for HIV/AIDs campaign especially school based AIDs education programs and activities in secondary schools to change their behavior.