Comparative Study of HIV/AIDS Education and Awareness in Sierra Leone - Essay Example

My double dissertation will seek to find out the forms of education that would work with the level of knowledge of the people in Sierra Leone. There is a need to do so as the number of infected cases is increasing in every age group. However, this might be unusual as no specific figures are showing the rate of HIV/AIDS among the people in Sierra Leone. Therefore it will be difficult to know if the rate of newly infected cases is declining when compared to other regions for example in the Sub-Sahara Africa where the number of newly infected cases for the disease among the youths was very high in 2001 but show a significant decrease in 2010 (UNAID 2011).

“The HIV epidemic in Sierra Leone is mixed, generalized and heterogeneous affecting different population sub-groups and resulting in multiple and diverse epidemics with different transmission dynamics” (UNAIDS 2010:15). I choose Sierra Leone because it is my country of birth and I will like to know how much knowledge people have about this disease. HIV is a condition found at relatively high levels among Sierra Leonean communities. As such, my exposure to the issue in an African context, as well as my general experiences of urban and rural Sierra Leonean living during my recent three weeks, stay in the Country is an intrinsic reason for me to research education and awareness of the disease.

The Sierra Leone National Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS (2011-2015), highlights the notion of working towards zero new infection and zero AIDS-related deaths by 2015. The report states that the national prevalence was 1.5% among the general population of 15-49years. Among men, it was 1.2% and women were 1.7%. However, the transmission mode is far from being under control. A comprehensive framework was set up in collaboration between UNAIDS and UNICEF in Sierra Leone to combat the scourge of the epidemic for better program planning in reducing the rate of newly infected cases and AIDS death.

Also, there were highlights that the HIV crisis was a mixed epidemic spread, affecting different populations and sub-groups universally.