Where the work of others has been used, this is duly acknowledged and referred to in the text. The research for this thesis was conducted at the School of Development Studies of the University of Natal. For example, women's risk-taking is now seen in the broader context of socio-economic dependency and gender inequality (see below).
It is important to point out here that individuals will always act in the same way in terms of risk taking. The Ugandan and Thai HIV-AIDS epidemics are two of the most closely observed and studied epidemics in the world. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Uganda experienced the highest mv prevalence in the world.
Research on sexual behavior and risk-taking is heavily concentrated in the West, which complicates any attempt to make assumptions or hypotheses in this study's investigation of male adolescents in sub-Sallaran Africa.
Awareness campaigns have been implemented in a lackluster manner in South Mrica, and this poor implementation means that the resulting gaps in knowledge are often filled by dangerous myths and. Young people in South Mrica are aware of HlV/AIDS, but they also encounter rapidly spreading urban and rural myths that should not be underestimated for their confusing and negative effects on protection efforts (Preston-Whyte, 1999). Anecdotal evidence suggests that these myths and misconceptions are proving to be a disaster for HlV prevention in rural clinics in South Mrica (“SA AIDS workers.
Southern Mrica's weak efforts in awareness stand in stark contrast to countries such as Uganda (Museveni, 1997; Rwomushana, 2000). Recent efforts, such as a sex education television programme, Love Life, have referred to the 1990s as the lost decade for South African youth due to the lost opportunities for guidance, especially in relation to HIV/AIDS awareness (Everatt, 1998).
Research Needs: Focus on Adolescent Males
Much has been written about why women in sub-Saharan Africa have a higher prevalence of HIV and continue to be at risk in the face of the HIV epidemic. First, it is biologically easier for a man to transmit HIV to a woman (UNAIDS, 2000), but in sub-Saharan Africa the social and economic position of women has also been seen to place them in a difficult negotiating position with men about sex and protection. . Relational power (Adams & Marshall, 2000~ Maharaj 2000), non-cultural (Campbell, Mzaidume, & Williams, 2000) and economic dependence (LeFranc, Wyatt, Chambers, Eldemire, Bain, & Ricketts, . 1996~ Sclmeider, . Steinberg, & Isselmuiden, 2000~ Susser & Stein, 2000) put women in a difficult position to negotiate when and where to have sex and whether to use protection.
This was compounded by the fact that few HIYI AIDS or reproductive health interventions targeted men (Maharaj, 2000). Only recently have researchers and health practitioners, after years of focusing most interventions in sub-Saharan Africa on women, discovered that women's lack of control over sexual negotiations and decision-making seriously hinders their efforts. Gender inequality has been identified by some as the number one obstacle for women to protect themselves from infection with HIV (Susser & Stein, 2000).
Surprisingly, given the popularity of blaming men in Africa for the spread of the epidemic and its impact on women, the scale of the epidemic among men in Africa, and their critical role in preventing HIV transmission, it was in comparison is not the focus of much research (Varga & Mellon, 2000; WHO, 2000). Adolescent males, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, are one of the least studied cohorts in the HIV/AIDS literature. Varga and Mellon (2000) conducted an extensive review of the literature on adolescent males in sub-Saharan Africa, and even among the rare studies, few go beyond the KAPB methodology to examine barriers to protection.
However, the research that has been conducted has not considered male perceptions and has focused heavily on issues of gender negotiation, male dominance and chauvinism. TItis was done in response to work showing that women often engage in unprotected sex because of resistance or abuse from men. In sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, qualitative work addressing micro-level barriers to men's protection has been neglected.
Research in South Africa
The importance attributed to fertility for the men and women of Mričan and the expectation that women will become pregnant was cited as a significant obstacle. Married men and women often have many children for the insurance and care that children provide in old age. These factors and the social acceptance of teenage pregnancy have led to high rates of unprotected sex and thus high rates of teenage pregnancy.
Previous studies in southern Mrica have also echoed findings from the rest of sub-Saharan Mrica (see above) that young men often use emotional and physical coercion in sexual relationships. Jackson and Harrison found that many young male adolescents view sex as equal to life, and consider it absolutely necessary from an early age (1999). Possessive and chauvinistic attitudes towards women are seen to fuel the problem of male violence and disregard for safety and respect (Varga, 1997).
The TILLS attitude that "men do not use condoms" has also been reported among adolescent males in Cape Town (Q.A. Karim, S.S.A. Karim, Preston-Whyte, and Sankar, 1992). Physical discomfort, discomfort and reduction in pleasure have also been barriers reported by South African men (Campbell, Mzaidume & Williams, 1998; Meedu & Pelzer, 2000). Adolescents have also expressed these concerns about condoms, especially about the reduction of pleasure (Q.A. Karim, S.S.A. Karim, Preston-Whyte, & Sankar, 1992).
Leclerc-Madlada (1997) found that many young Zulu South Africans infected with HIV knowingly infect others. Continued political violence and high levels of crime have been seen to create a situation where young people suspected of being infected sleep with as much as possible to spread the infection (Leclerc-Madlada, 1997). 34;awareness" is said to be high in South Africa, they discovered several gaps in functional protective knowledge and several myths that can prevent young men and women from protecting themselves.
Methods
The main topics discussed in the focus groups and asked in the questionnaires were risk perception, opinions about condoms, opinions and beliefs about sexuality and AIDS, and opinions about multiple partners. Almost all respondents in the questionnaires stated that their condom use was inconsistent and all in the focus groups agreed that their use was inconsistent. 34;I used a condom because I didn't trust her' was a common response in focus groups and questionnaires to various questions about past condom use.
Consequently, virgins were seen as "safe" and not requiring condom use in both questionnaires and focus groups. Most respondents in questionnaires and focus groups stated that it was dangerous to have multiple partners in the context of HIV/AIDS, but not wrong. As for whether it was good to be an isoka (casanova), some respondents said yes, because of the fame an isoka could get in the villages.
However, most agreed that being isoka in the face of the mv threat is risky and indeed stupid. In the store they might cost Rll and then you get a condom for free, you know. While there was optimism that a cure existed or was currently in development, a pessimism also emerged in the focus groups regarding the ability to protect against HIV.
In the focus groups there was a general consensus that infection rates were somewhere between 70 and 80% among "young people" in KwaZulu-Natal. Questionnaires and focus groups revealed that the threat of HIV remained ubiquitous. The focus groups also revealed that many have rationalized the prevalence and high incidence rates among blacks as the result of any number of conspiracies.
Discussion
Distrust of the quality of clinic condoms and the prohibitive cost of over-the-counter condoms was also a deterrent. There are many herbal remedies that treat some of the visible symptoms such as loss of appetite or runny stomach. Their optimistic attitude towards a biomedical cure could be prompted by the news of AZT and vaccine trials (see Beresford, 2000), such as the well-known trial in Hlabisa, KwaZulu-Natal, constantly circulating in the South American media.
HIV drug treatment ads were found to create more risk comfort, for example in It may also be the widespread fear and disillusionment with the sheer severity of the epidemic that led many young men to believe that there must be a cure for something so terrifying and threatening. These rapidly spreading urban myths are aided by the weakness of South African sex and HIV education, which often does not explicitly link gender and HIV infection (Jackson and Harrison, 1999).
A visit to a shebeen (bar) or a visit to Soweto or Clermont townships, for example by myself, a white American male, inevitably always led to a discussion of past injustices and current racism and race relations. As in the study by Jackson and Harrison (1999), what was striking about the results of this study was the extent to which correct information about HIVI AIDS prevention could possibly be rendered useless or harmful by the rapid spread of myths and lack of continuous reinforcement of correct knowledge. These findings also highlight the danger of relying solely on quantitative HI VI AIDS awareness questionnaires to assess HIVI AIDS awareness and design interventions.
Simply asking a respondent yes or no about whether they believe in a cure, for example, is not going to reveal the multifaceted answers and often well-thought-out narratives and illusions that a qualitative investigation will. For example, two focus group respondents in this study said they had heard of couples pinching holes in condoms to release ileal fluid. More qualitative research is essential and urgent to generate a deeper understanding of the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and practices of young people regarding sex and miles AIDS.
Conclusion
YES NO YES NO 13) Please list all the ways you believe someone could be infected with HIV/AIDS. YES NO I DON'T KNOW 15) How can a person know that he is not infected with HIV AIDS? YES NO I DON'T KNOW 17) How can a person know that he is not infected with III VI AIDS?.
If someone has been infected with HIV for 3 years, it is possible that they can still look, feel and act like a normal healthy person. Do you think there is a possibility of infection with HIV AIDS infection with your girlfriends?. Do you want your sex partner or girlfriend to get pregnant while you are at school?
YES NO 49) I ask you to use a condom, what reaction do you get from your girlfriend.
