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Introduction & Objective :Without doubt, the largest human society’s misfortune after second world war is aids world conquering . At present , the best way of combat is to prevent the disease . Giving knowledge to the health personnels and their understanding about risk factors of the disease can promote health and prevention of disease propagation . Therefore this study has been done in order to determine the knowledge and attitude of health personnels . Materials & Methods: This is a descriptive-sectional study in which 140 personnels of Shahid Beheshti and Emam Sajad hospitals were used as sample in the year 2003, which were selected according to simple sampling and were studied with the help of questionnaire. Then the resulting data were analyzed by SPSS software . Results: Findings showed that 72.9% of samples had good knowledge and 54.3% of them had positive attitude about aids. 62.2% of cases , believe that , conferences, seminars, educational services, magazines and health notes have been their sources of getting information . 60.8% of cases having B.S. degree and 63.2% of them having nursing occupation had positive attitude about aids. Meanwhile, 67.9% of cases with operation room occupation, had no attitude regarding aids Conclusion:Study results showed that, the knowledge of health personnels was good about aids but only few of them had positive attitude . Therefore permanent and new educations are necessary for personnels

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ABSTRACT: Introduction & Objective: Sexualy transmitted infections (STIs) and AIDS are the most common diseases worldwide. Women are more affected by STIs and AIDS due to gender-related factors such as biological, cultural and so on. This study was conducted to investigate knowledge about AIDS and STIs among married women in Kohgilouyeh & BoyerAhmad Province/Iran. Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the urban areas of Kohgilouyeh and Boyerahmad province. Using stratifed cluster sampling, a valid questionnaire covering demographic variables and items related to knowledge about AIDS and STIs was administered to 1379 women covered by the urban PHC clinics. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 33.3 (SD=±9.3). Most were household (%85) and the mean level of their formal education was 7.2 years (SD=±4.8). The results also showed that women had the most knowledge with the statements that "using condom protects against AIDS" (%63.9) and "asymptomatic persons would be as AIDS vectors" (%65.1). There was a significant relation between education and recognizing AIDS as a sexualy transmitted infection (p=0.004). Albeit, women were poorly familiar with the STIs, the most knowledge was found with gonorrhea (%40.5) and the least with chlamydia (%12.2). The most knowledge was observed with the statements that "STIs would induce PID in women" and "using condom protects against all the venereal diseases" (both %61.1). A significant corelation was found between education and job and fimiliarity with STIs (p<0.001). Conclusion: Findings showed limited knowledge on sexualy transmitted infections and fairely good knowledge on AIDS. There is need for the promotion of women's knowledge in sexual health field.

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Introduction & Objective: The risk of developing chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) is 5% in general population but can reach up to 20% in HIV patients. The response rate to HBV vaccine in HIV infected patients is 23.8-56 percent. The aim of this study was to evaluate response of HIV-infected patients to 20 µg dose of recombinant HBV vaccine. Materials & Methods: In this quasi experimental study, 51 subjects, sampled through census, were HIV patients who had HBsAg negative test in HIV/AIDS counseling and care center. Patients were vaccinated with 20 µg of recombinant HBV vaccine, IM at intervals of 0, 1 and 6 months. Response to the vaccine was checked 2 months after the last injection. Data were analyzed with SPSS software, using descriptive statistics and nonparametric tests. Results: The mean age of the patients was 33.68±8.37 years. Two patients were female (3.9%) and 49 patients were male (96.1%). Mean of hepatitis B antibody level was 47.55±71.58 mIU/ml. The levels of antibody in different patients were as follow: 31 patients (60.8%) <10 mIU/ml and 20 patients (39.2%)> 10 mIU/ml. There was no significant correlation between antibody levels and CD4+ cell count (correlation coefficient = -0.191). Conclusion: Response to hepatitis B vaccination is low in HIV infected patients. Conventional dose of HBV vaccine is not enough to get protective immunity. Therefore, two-fold dose of vaccine dose, repeat of conventional dose or increasing of interval administration of hepatitis B vaccine should be considered in future studies.

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Background & aim: With regard to the psychological problems of HIV infection, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of spirituality with a sense of pain and quality of life in patients with HIV/ AIDS. Methods: This descriptive-correlation study was conducted on 43 patients with AIDS in Sistan & Baluchestan province which were selected via available sampling method. Spirituality was measured using the Spirituality Questionnaire, feeling of suffering using the Scale of Experience, and Perception of Suffering and quality of life using the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire. Data was analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and Stepwise regression. Results: There was a significant positive relationship between spirituality and quality of life and significant negative relationship between spirituality and feeling of suffering (p<0.05). There was a significant negative relationship between spirituality and psychological suffering (p<0.05). Component of self-awareness is the best predictor of physical and psychological health and also social relationships of the quality of life. In addition, component of self-awareness is the best predictor of physical and psychological suffering, and components of self-awareness and spiritual needs, respectively, are best predictors of spiritual and existential suffering. Conclusion: Reinforcing the spiritual and religious attitude in patients with HIV/AIDS through spiritual and religion instruction may increase the social-mental health and reduce the feeling of suffering and improve quality of life of the patients.

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Background and aim: Considering the rise of HIV transmission through sexual contact, the necessity of disease prevention through sexually transmitted is apparent from the models. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of educational program based on health belief model in health beliefs about AIDS in high school female students in tehran. Methods: The present interventional study was conducted on 77 students in level one, two and three as intervention group and 72 students as control group from two high schools of area 8. Data collection tool was a questionnaire containing demographic information and questions related to the health belief model. After pretest on both groups the only intervention group was educated based on HIV and AIDS preventive behaviors. Collected data were analyzed by Paired t-test and Independent t-test. Results: In spite of similarity in both groups at baseline, the intervention was carried out based on health belief leads to a significant improvement in knowledge, perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits and self-efficacy respectively (p< 0.05). It also indicated that the students' perceived barriers to HIV preventive behaviors and beliefs associated to the disease significantly declined (p <0.05). Conclusion: Results of study revealed that the educational program might improve the health beliefs of the students regarding HIV preventive behaviors. Therefore it is recommended to high schools if the training program be approved by other studies.

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Background & aim: Health literacy is the capacity of an individual to obtain, interpret, and understand basic health information and services and the competence to use such information and services in ways that are health enhancing. The aim of this study was to assess the HIV/AIDS health literacy in Yasuj and its related factors. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a 21-item valid and reliable questionnaire was used. Our sample included 250 individuals aged 15- 49 years that selected by two-stage cluster sampling method and completed the questionnaire. Results: Average of health literacy scores of participants was 10.30 ± 3.36 and only 16.4 percent of them had adequate HIV/AIDS literacy. In modified regression model, there was a significant association between education (B= 0.40, p<0.001), being governmental staff (B=1.54, p=0.02), and low economic status (B= - 0.52, p=0.02) with HIV/AIDS literacy scores. Conclusions: Most of the individuals in this study had not enough HIV/AIDS literacy level. It seems that lack of access to information and services relevant to the HIV/AIDS complexity and disproportion of information with audience and inappropriate form of presenting health messages, cause low health literacy. Keywords: health literacy, HIV/AIDS, Assessment

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Background & aim: One of the global challenges regarding HIV patients is the increased sensitivity to intracellular pathogens such as tuberculosis. CD4+ cells are the main defense element against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but in these people, as their number decreases, the risk of tuberculosis increases, even antiretroviral treatments sometimes cause unknown manifestations of tuberculosis. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in patients with HIV by microscopic and molecular methods.

Methods: The present descriptive study was conducted on 100 cases of HIV-infected patients who had completed more than 6 months of antiretroviral treatment, by recording their demographic characteristics. First, three sputum samples were taken from the patients at certain times in accordance with the standard principles of laboratory and immunobiology in the open air, and they were stained by the following Nelson method and examined microscopically. Then, their blood samples were analyzed with cell counter and Real-Time PCR to measure CD4+ and determine the viral load, respectively. The collected data were analyzed using ANOVA, homogeneity of variance (LON) and LSD post hoc statistical tests.

Results: The average CD4+ count and viral load in this community were determined as 722/8 and 177/5 respectively. Only two percent of the population (both women) had simultaneous HIV/TB infection. There was no significant relationship between infection and the variables of age, gender, marital status and education (p>0.1). There was a direct significant relationship between the variables of treatment length and CD4+ count (p<0/05) and between them with viral load. There was an inverse significant relationship (p<0/01).

Conclusion: Tuberculosis is the most common opportunistic infection in HIV infected patients. With the lack of a vaccine for HIV and the lack of an effective vaccine for TB, it is necessary to design strategies to deal with HIV-TB co-infection.

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Background & aim: HIV/AIDS is a major health concern globally. Promoting HIV AIDS literacy for everyone is one of the appropriate and required measures in this regard. The present research aimed to improve HIV/AIDS literacy among male teachers in high schools of Ahvaz.

Methods: The present field-trial study was conducted on 200 male teachers of the first and second high schools of Ahvaz. The study population was randomly divided into intervention (n=100) and control (n=100) groups. The Iranian HIV/AIDS Literacy Questionnaire was used to collect data. According to easy-to-read texts and alternative communication tools strategies, HIV/AIDS Literacy intervention was developed. The intervention included developing an educational pamphlet and sending SMS to the intervention group. One month after the intervention, the questionnaire was completed again and analyzed by SPSS software using logistic regression and t-test.

Results: The age mean and standard deviation of the participants was 41.60 ± 7.80. At the baseline, the mean and standard deviation of HIV/AIDS literacy was 11.1 ± 3.46 in the intervention group and 9.63 ± 2.54 in the comparison group. After the intervention, the score of HIV/AIDS literacy significantly improved in the intervention group (P<0.001). Only marital status was the significant predictor for HIV/AIDS literacy. Analysis of the Pearson correlation coefficients showed that understanding and search skills have the strongest correlation with HIV/AIDS literacy.

Conclusion: Based on the study findings, it was concluded that promoting HIV/AIDS literacy through   the use of easily understandable texts and alternative communication tools can prove to be effective. Considering the role of teachers in transferring knowledge and skills to prevent HIV and its transmission, it is suggested to hold regular and continuous training courses for all teachers.