Aim: To study the awareness of HIV infection in the dwellers of the Central Administrative District of Moscow.
Subjects and methods: A continuous cross-sectional survey was made in all the citizens who applied to the V.A. Gilyarovsky Mental Hospital Three, Branch Four, for information on the day of the survey and gave their consent to participate in this survey that was performed in 4 steps; a total of 414 persons were questioned. Their knowledge and ideas were anonymously assessed using a specially developed questionnaire. After analyzing their replies, the respondents were divided into 3 groups: 1) representatives of the so-called general population; 2) draft-age youngsters; 3) health care workers.
Results: The draftees (34%) gave the largest number of wrong answers to the question whether human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) could be transmitted through mosquito bites (p=0.0001). Among the healthcare workers, 81% of the respondents indicated that HIV could not be transmitted through mosquito bites; the proportion of right answers among the general population was 64.3%. The statement that a condom reliably protects against HIV infection was considered to be true by 52.4% of the health care workers, 56% of the draftees, and 62.2% of the representatives of the general population. The HIV/AIDS topic was not relevant for 43.4% of the general population and 58.3% of the health care workers; 98.7% of the respondents of the general population pointed that blood should be sampled for testing for HIV antibodies to find out whether a person had HIV (AIDS); this answer was chosen by 87.5% of the surveyed health care workers.
Conclusion: Low knowledge about HIV infection particularly among the draft-age youngsters is evidence for the insufficient efficiency of performed preventive measures among both the general population and the organized young people. Attention is drawn to the opinion of the respondent health care workers as to the reliability of using the condom to prevent HIV transmission. The findings will be kept in mind when elaborating the teaching programs.