Knowledge, awareness and perception on HIV/AIDS and hepatitis-b among narikuravar gypsie population residing at Valliyur, Thirunelveli District- A cross sectional Study

Background: HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis-Bare major health problems worldwide. The number of infected people are liable to increase day by day. Awareness towards prevention and control of these diseasesare necessary among both educated and illiterate people. This study is concerned with a special branch of folk medicine in Tamilnadu, India which is formerly peripatetic hunter community settled all over South India. Objectives: This study is aimed at assessing the awareness and knowledge about HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis-B among the Narikuravar population residing at Thirunelveli district. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire based study was conducted amongst the Narikuravar Gypsies population residing at Valliyur, Thirunelveli district. Out of 212 members of both the sex, 108 respondents who were above 18 years of age were included in the study. A close ended questionnaire of 20 self-administered questions was given. Results were statistically analyzed using chi square test. The level of significance was set at p value <0.05. Results: A total of 108 subjects of 52 male and 56 female were recruited. Out of 108 participants all were aware regarding HIV/AIDS and that it transmits through Blood. But still almost 50% of participants had superstitions regarding sharing food and hugging or shaking hands with HIV/AIDS patients. Conclusion: This showed the level of awareness about HIV/AIDS among the Narikuravar Gypsies population residing at Valliyur, Thirunelveli district. The awareness regarding the HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis-B was less and superstition regarding the same was more compared to other population. Thus it is necessary to break such superstition about the disease in order to bring a complete awareness of the disease.