Knowledge, attitude and practice towards AIDS among civil servants in Nigeria.

A study about knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) towards AIDS was carried out amongst 340 randomly selected workers in Benin City in Nigeria using self-administered questionnaires. Three hundred and thirty (97.1%) of the workers were aware of the existence of AIDS but only 50 (14.7%) had the correct knowledge of the aetiology of AIDS, and of these 29 (8.5%) had tertiary education. Generally there was a good knowledge of the different routes of transmission except for the erroneous belief by a high number, 125 (36.8%) and 129 (37.9%) that it could be transmitted through sharing of utensils and causal kissing respectively. The attitude to AIDS sufferers is poor and 156 (45.9%) actually think they should be ostracized. Twenty-one (6.2%) of the respondents still keep multiple sexual partners while 142 (41.8%) would willingly use the condom for safer sex. There is therefore the need for an intensive and effective health education campaign to combat this deadly disease in the country.