A survey was conducted in Ohio of 400 African immigrants regarding AIDS, HIV, and sex. 60 percent of the respondents were male, with the remaining 40 percent being female. All persons were between the ages of 21 and 61. Matthew Asare, a visiting professor at Northern Kentucky University and native of Ghana, conducted this survey. The survey was made up of 64 questions and touched on subjects such as the use of condoms, sexual communication, and the attitudes held on monogamy. Many things were learned from the survey. Out of the 400, Asare saw that 12 percent reported having sexual interaction with more than one partner while the remaining 87 percent reported only being sexually active with one other person. Asare said that in addition to this, he found that many of the people considered themselves susceptible to getting AIDS. The respondents that had more communication with sex and safety during sex were found to be younger kids and those who were more adapted to the American culture. A desire as a result of this survey is more health care and promotion to the African people.
I think that surveys such as this should be conducted much more often. Although American seems to be one of the better countries with their mostly monogamous beliefs and the many routes to take to have safe sex, I think it is actually one of the countries that needs help the most. The topic of sex and diseases very easily gets pushed to the back burner by adults due to hoping to just avoid the topic all together. Younger kids these days seem to learn a majority about sex by actually doing it rather than be talked to about the subject by their parents beforehand. With sex out of wedlock being so prominent and encouraged in today’s world, the cases of AIDS continue to skyrocket. Between Africa’s conditions of not having the best health care/strategies and the accepting of polygamy, AIDS is very prominent. As we have discussed several times, AIDS is not something that can just be gotten rid of. I think the desires of better health education is a great idea and could possibly turn the world of AIDS around in Africa and eventually spread the abstinence to other countries. With ways to prevent AIDS from happening in the first place, I think it should be important to educate people of such prevention and about the disease.
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