Interdisciplinary Seminar:
Education for Health
Convener: Eliane Didier, France

Knowledge about Combating HIV/AIDS among Annamalai University Students
B. Minnelkodi, Indian Federation of University Women’s Associations

AIDS stands for “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.” It is caused by a virus called HIV (Human Immune Deficiency Virus) which attacks and over time destroys the body’s immune system. HIV, like other viruses is very small, too small to be seen with an ordinary microscope.

To reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS, knowledge of ways to combat HIV/AIDS is essential for human beings. 25 questions on preventative measures for combating HIV/AIDS were prepared by consulting the experts in the field of medicine and were administered to 340 students studying at Annamalai University.

The following objectives were formulated:

• To find out the level of knowledge about combating HIV/AIDS among Male, Female, Rural, Urban, Arts, Science, Commerce, Undergraduate, postgraduate, students below 25 years, students above 25 years, students having work experience, students not having work experience, students from different states (Tamilnadu, Kerala, Andrapradesh, Pondicherry) studying in Annamalai University;
• To find out whether there is any significant difference between the mean value of such knowledge with regard to the different sub-samples (Gender, Native places, Subjects, Level of study, Age, Work experience and from Different States).

It was interesting to discover that the level of knowledge on combating HIV/AIDS is high. Still, the students involved in this study did not have 100% knowledge on combating HIV/AIDS and there is also significant difference among the sub-samples involved in this study. This calls for deeper study into factors that made them unaware of the mode of combating HIV/AIDS.

Dr B. Minnellkodi holds MSc, MPhil. and PhD degrees from Annamali University, Tamil Nadu, where she is a Reader in Education. She is involved as a lecturer in a number of educational programmes for rural women, including income-generating programmes and communicative skills. She is Treasurer of the Chidambaram Chapter of the Indian Federation of University Women’s Association.