Widespread ignorance about HIV and sex

Social norms impose a dangerous ignorance on girls and young women, who often are expected to know little about sex and sexuality. That lack of knowledge magnifies their risk of HIV infection. In many countries, most young women do not know how to protect themselves against HIV infection, as the figure at left illustrates. In countries such as Cameroon, Lesotho, Mali, Senegal and Viet Nam, two thirds or more of young women (aged 15 to 24 years) did not know three HIV prevention methods when surveyed. In Moldova, Ukraine and Uzbekistan more than 80% of young women lacked that knowledge. Knowledge about sex in general is also surprisingly low in many places. A recent study among rural married women in Uttar Pradesh, India, for example, found that 71% of the women (all of whom had married before puberty) knew nothing about how sex occurs when they began cohabiting with their husbands, and 83% did not know how a woman could become pregnant.

From UNAIDS