| dc.description.abstract | Voluntary counselling and testing and adolescents productivity is a tool recommended for the reduction of the spread of HIV/AIDS. The study sought to find out the attitude of the youth towards voluntary counseling and testing of HIV/AIDS. The sample size was two hundred youth selected using purposive sampling. A structured interview guide was used in the collection of data from Nsambya Hospital in Uganda. Data collected was hand coded, analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (S.P.S.S.) and presented in the form of table and frequency distribution tables. The study revealed that most respondents had knowledge about HIV/AIDS and knew about its mode of transmission. Their main source of information was through the mass media. Majority of respondent’s knew they could check their serostatus mainly at the hospital but then there is less knowledge of own HIV status in the hospital; 14.5% strongly agreed, 56% agreed, 20% were not sure, 8% disagreed and 1.8% strongly disagreed, which showed that there is less knowledge of own HIV status in the hospital. This implied that Fifty-eight percent (58%) of respondents indicated their preferred site for Nsambya Hospital.
They also suggested that Voluntary counseling and testing services can result in positive behavior change including a decrease in unprotected sexual intercourse. In conclusion, adolescents in Uganda (more than 95% of both sexes) have ever attended school, drop-out rates particularly among older female adolescents (15-19 years old) remain high. This increases their vulnerability to early and sometimes forced marriages, teenage pregnancy and STIs, including HIV. They were also unwilling to access VCT services for fear of knowing their HIV status. Ii is therefore being suggested that all stakeholders in the fight against HIV/AIDS intensify their information, education and communication (IE & C) activities to increase awareness and use of the service especially by the youth. | en_US |
