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“The youth population, while we don’t have any prevalence study among that population, we know it’s one of our priority groups for action. So we’ve been working with the youths,” she said.
She related that NAPS classifies youth as a priority group for action because of the findings of surveys over the years, making particular reference to biological and behavioural surveillance surveys (BBSS) conducted in 2004 and 2009, which questioned the youths about their general knowledge of HIV, how it is transmitted, and how to prevent its transmission, among other things.
Dr. Singh noted that when the findings of those two surveys are compared, there was a significant increase of HIV knowledge among in-school youths, which was perhaps the largest increase in knowledge.
“I think (that) what the surveys did show to us is that there was an increase in knowledge and attitude; but in terms of practices, it was different,” she related.
She said that more in-school youth knew how HIV was transmitted, and how to protect themselves; and that there was also a slight increase in terms of stigma and discrimination.
“For example, in 2004, the accepting attitude was very low towards people living with HIV; but in 2009, that increased a little,” she said.
She, however, noted that what did not change, and to some extent even got a little worse, were the actual practices.
Dr. Singh added that in terms of the in-school youth knowledge of sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs), approximately 75% of them had relatively good knowledge in 2004; while, in 2009, that amount went up to about 93%.
According to her, with particular reference to the in-school youth population, the Ministry of Education has been working on the Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) programme, which she deems as the core initiative to work with this population.
She related that a number of surveys are conducted making reference to school health surveys, which seek to address a number of issues that affect in-school youths, including alcohol use and mental health issues such as depression.
Dr. Singh said there are some parameters that are measured in the school health surveys that look, for example, at protective factors, including the measurement of whether or not their parents knew what the children were doing in their free time.
“…and if you look at the first survey, compared to the second survey, the second survey I think was done in 2012, less parents knew what their children were doing in their free time, compared to the first survey,” she stated.
“So when we look at the risk factors, they’ve gotten higher; and when we look at the protective factors, they are less for the in-school youth,” she said.
According to her, NAPS also tries to engage in-school youth in terms of the peer education.
“For example, the ‘work study’ students that we would normally have come to the Ministry of Health, we’ll have them certified as peer educators. So we do a two-day extensive training with them on HIV, and we certify them as peer educators,” she informed.
She added that these peer educators are brought back on a regular basis to be given refresher training.
Dr. Singh also informed that, through the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programme, NAPS engages a number of civil society organisations which go into the schools and assist with the HFLE modules, talking about HIV among the in-school youth population.
