Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Risky Sexual Behavior Leading to HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infections among Egyptian Substance Abusers: A Cross-Sectional Study
Background. Rapidly growing youth population with changing sexual trend in Egypt raised HIV potential. The aim of this study is to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding unsafe sexual behavior among Egyptian drug abusers. Methods. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2008 in the Freedom Drugs and HIV Program on 410 drug abusers in Egypt. Included respondents were subanalyzed by gender, age, education, and intravenous drug usage. Results. KAP average scores on safe sexual behavior were low compared to the maximum possible denoting low awareness and action of drug addicts towards avoidance of infection. Respondents with higher education had significantly better knowledge about safe sexual behavior. Significant positive correlation was shown between age and knowledge of safe sexual behavior. Older age groups were predicted to know more about safe sex, while gender; educational level and intravenous drug usage were not. Similarly, females and intravenous drug users were predicted to have higher attitude for safe sex while age and educational level did not. Conclusion. KAP of safe sexual behavior were low among drug addicts in Egypt increasing potential towards infection with STDs including HIV. The more the age and education level, the better the knowledge towards safe sexual behavior. 1. Introduction AIDS was first recognized in United States in summer of 1981, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the unexplained occurrence of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in five previously healthy homosexual men in Los Angeles and of kaposi sarcoma in 26 previously healthy homosexual men in New York and Los Angeles [1]. Since 2001, the number of people newly infected in the Middle East and North Africa has increased by more than 35% (from 27？000 to 37？000). Middle East and North Africa were the second most suffering region which experienced significant increases in mortality from AIDS. The limited HIV information available for the Middle East and North Africa indicates that approximately 300？000 (250？000–360？000) people were living with HIV in 2011 compared to 210？000 (170？000–270？000) in 2001 [2]. It was 1986 when the first AIDS case patient in Egypt was identified. Egypt was estimated to have 11,000 of PLWHA till the end of 2010, with adults 25–40 years being the majority, and male-female ratio of all detected cases was 4？:？1 (UNAIDS). According to the Bio-Behavioral Surveillance Survey (BBSS) in 2010 [3], Egypt had a low HIV prevalence <0.2% [4], with a concentrated epidemic among men having sex with men (MSM) and
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