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Journal of Infectious Diseases & Therapy |ISSN: 2332-0877 | Volume 6

June 25-26, 2018 | Vancouver, Canada

International Conference on

Infection, Disease Control and Prevention

Microbial Pathogenesis & Infectious Diseases

Sexually transmitted infections: Knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes of youth in a mining community, a

focus group discussion study of obuasi municipality of Ghana

Serwaa Akoto Bawua

and

Richmond Owusu

University of Ghana, Ghana

exually transmitted infections (STIs) remain a public health problem globally with youth disproportionately affected by the

epidemic. Furthermore, high prevalence of STIs have been linked with mining communities in the literature. The combined effect

of being young and resident in a mining community therefore increases the vulnerability of this population to STIs. It is against this

background that the study seeks to ascertain the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of STIs among youth in the Obuasi mining

community. Using a qualitative approach, five focus group discussions that recruited 52 participants aged 15-24 years were conducted.

The main themes for the FGDs were knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes on STIs. Results from the study revealed that youth in

the mining community had fair knowledge of STIs generally, however, this knowledge is limited and fraught with misconceptions

such as, candidiasis is an example of STI, oral contraceptives can prevent STIs, and all STIs are viral infections. It was also found

that condom use is a preferable STI prevention method for the youth, yet they do not have extensive knowledge about condom use.

Moreover, stigma, shame and unavailability of testing and treatment centers at the community level are major barriers to youth sexual

health improvement and STIs control generally. Since behavior change which is influenced by knowledge, attitudes and perceptions

is vital to the fight against STIs among the youth, any future interventions for STIs should include or better still target increasing STI

knowledge, and improving attitude of youth in mining communities.

J Infect Dis Ther 2018, Volume 6

DOI: 10.4172/2332-0877-C2-042