Description
Abstract
Acceptance of routine HIV/AIDS counseling and testing can go a long way in providing the much needed support including treatment to alleviate suffering from HIV/AIDS for all age-groups and levels. However, there is low uptake of routine HCT among the students” populace. This study, therefore, was carried out with the main purpose of investigating the perception of the routine HIV/AIDS test at Madonna University among Medical Laboratory Science students, River state. Quantitative Descriptive survey design was employed. A self-designed questionnaire was used as the research instrument with 98 students of Medical Laboratory Science students as sample size. Data collection was carried out using simple random sampling technique. Statistical analysis of data was done by using SPSS (20.0). Overall, 100% of the respondents agreed to knowing or hearing about HIV/AIDS. Majority of the respondents (91.8%) knew the meaning of routine HIV test. The factors influencing the acceptance of routine HIV/AIDS test among students were shown to be knowledge of own HIV/AIDS status (93.9%), counselors’ attitude (90.8%), level of awareness (96%), perception about people living with HIV/AIDS (84.7%), demographics such as age, gender, and location (89.8%), and fear of stigma (97%). The results of this study suggest that non- acceptance remains relatively high (68.6%) despite the uptake of routine HIV/AIDs tests, because most (76.5%) of the students perceive routine HIV testing as a mandatory test. Based on the conclusions, the researcher recommended that there is a need to intensify family involvement in counseling and HIV testing as this has a major bearing on the acceptance of routine HIV/AIDS testing to eliminate fear of disclosure of results and family related stigma.
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