Assessment of Awareness of the Hazards Associated With HIV/AIDS Among Rural Dwellers (A Case Study of Oju Local Government Area of Benue State)

ABSTRACT This work investigates the level of awareness of the hazards  associated with   HIV/AIDSamong  rural  dwellers  in   Oju   Local  Government  Area.  A  random   sampling  method  wasadopted  and questionnaires were administered  to the rural dwellers as a means of datacollection. A simple percentage technique of data presentation was used. Three villages weresampled (Ikachi- Ukpa, Ameka-Owo, Ojaba-Ainu) from the two districts (Uwokwu and Igedecentre) in Oju Local Government Area. One hundred questionnaires were distributed to onehundred randomly selected children of age (15 and below), youth of the age (16-20) andadults from 20 years and above. The results showed that majority of the rural dwellers (95%)have heard about the disease condition called HIV/AIDS. This is an indicator that a littlepopulation of the rural dwellers were ignorant of the disease condition. The above is backedby the fact that 95% of the rural dwellers have been educated on the disease condition byeither groups or organizations and majority of them (95%) were aware of the fact that mereeating with an  HIV/AIDS victim cannot lead  to the contraction of the disease and   wereequally aware that the use of unsterilized needles, having unprotected sex can lead to thedisease condition. The result further showed that majority of them (50%) believes that adultsare more vulnerable to contracting the disease as they fall within the reproductive age.Key words: HIV/AIDS, disease, immune, deficiency, virus, syndrome