One in six young people who took part in the Now You Foundation's survey on HIV believes that you can be infected by touching furniture or street furniture and therefore "it is better to wash and disinfect your hands often, especially in public places, because perhaps benches, handrails and buttons have been touched by people with HIV". This is obviously not true. Almost one in five participants in this quiz think misleadinglythat kissing someone living with HIV poses a high risk of infection. Finally, and most importantly, almost a quarter of respondents believe, wronglythat the HIV problem does not concern them at all.
These were the results of a quiz conducted on Instagram by the Now You Foundation (@foundation_teraz_wy) as part of the 'I'm talking about HIV' educational campaign implemented as part of the Positively Open competition organised by Gilead Sciences.
What else can be learned from the results of this mini-survey? As many as 45% taking part in the survey did not know that an HIV test can be self-tested at home or that it can be free and anonymous. A similar group of 47% do not know that after risky behaviour you have to wait 6-12 weeks (depending on the test) before the result is reliable. Finally - and perhaps most shockingly - only 36% people answered correctly the question whether breast milk can be an infectious fluid if the woman is living with HIV. It is worth adding that of course it is, as are blood, sperm, preejaculate, and vaginal and cervical secretions.
In view of such a low level of knowledge about the virus, it is no longer surprising that nearly 70% of new HIV infections detected in Poland are among young people, between 20 and 39 years of age, and half of them are under 30.
Fortunately, there is also good news: the 100% participants in the survey want to learn more about when it is worthwhile to take an HIV test. They can do so, for example, by watching a video prepared as part of an educational campaign by the Now You Foundation on YouTube (Now You Foundation).
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The aim of the Positively Open programme is to promote HIV prevention and knowledge about the possibilities of a normal life with the virus. Within the programme there is a competition for institutions which would like to run or already run programmes in the area of education and activation, as well as HIV/AIDS prevention and diagnostics. The partners of the Programme are the Mayor of the Capital City of Warsaw, the National AIDS Centre, the National Institute of Public Health PZH - National Research Institute, "Służba Zdrowia", Termedia publishing house and the company Gilead Sciences, which in the last eleven years has allocated more than 2 million zlotys for grants allowing the implementation of competition projects.
For further information, please contact:
Mariola Sarnowska
Positively Open Organisation Office
tel: +48 502 213 047
