Knowledge, attitude and practice towards hiv/aids among barabaig pastoralists of Hanang and Babati districts -Tanzania

Change in the mode of pastoralist livelihood activities and resultant consequent activities have made pastoralist to move out of their traditional safety environment. Despite of pastoralist being exposed to HIV risk they are holding strong cultural practices some of which are HIV spread risk factors. The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to grow with thousands of new infections occurring every day. Prevention remains the backbone of programs to curb the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and will be effective only if they can address the factors that put communities at risk and reach the majority of people at risk. Understanding of cultural context, specific prevention needs and characteristics of key groups help the tailoring of programs focusing on the main modes of HIV transmission in any given community. General objective of this study was to shed light on the level of knowledge, attitude, and practices towards HIV/AIDS among Barabaig pastoralists and come up with recommendations to guide implementers on HIV/AIDS interventions in pastoralist community. Study adopted a cross sectional design. A sample of 100 randomly selected households was used. In addition 160 of respondents participated in focus group discussions. The analytical technique used was The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 11.5. Findings indicate that, majority (98.9%) of Barabaigs have heard about HIV/AIDS. Majority (66.2%) have low to moderate level of knowledge on HIV/AIDS transmission, with females having low level of knowledge compared to males. Misconception was wide spread. Majority (54.8%) does not believe (have negative attitude) if they can also contract HIV/AIDS. Risk practices (rites, sexual network and circumcision) are prevalent. Main sources of information were radio and village meeting with limited HIV/AIDS interventions. Based on the findings, Study recommends implementation of more comprehensive HIV/AIDS programmes targeting pastoralist basing on prevention, care, treatment, support, females empowerment and reduction of traditional risk practices.Government of Belgium through the Belgian Technical Co-operation (BTC