Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

A literature review is a body of text that aims to review the critical points of current
knowledge including substantive findings as well as theoretical and methodological
contributions to a particular topic. Literature reviews are secondary sources, and as such, do
not report any new or original experimental work. In another word, a literature review is an
account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers.

Therefore the aim of this chapter is to review what researches had been done by other
accredited members of society. This will then enable us to identify some crucial aspects. By
this we will be able:-

-to identify gaps in the literature

-to avoid reinventing the wheel (at the very least this will save time and it can stop us
from making the same mistakes as others)
-to carry on from where others have already reached (reviewing the field allows us to
build on the platform of existing knowledge and ideas)
-to identify other people working in the same fields (a researcher network is a valuable
resource)
-to increase our breadth of knowledge of the subject area
-to provide the intellectual context for the work
-to identify opposing views
-to identify information and ideas that may be relevant to the project
-to identify methods that could be relevant to the project

2.2 Literature review

The spread of HIV (the virus leading to AIDS) is now widely acknowledged as a major
public health issue facing many nations, both from the developed and less developed world.
Consequently, a major task of public health professionals has been to devise an effective
way of halting the spread of this life-threatening virus.

Given the present lack of an effective means of killing or neutralizing the virus and the
unavailability of a suitable vaccine, it is apparent that the strategy of prevention of HIV
transmission through education. The expansion and improvement of HIV and AIDS
education around the world is critical to preventing the spread of HIV. There are an
estimated 33 million people living with the virus, and each year millions more people
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become infected. Effective HIV and AIDS education can help prevent these new infections by
providing people with information about HIV and how it is passed on, and in doing so
equipping individuals with the knowledge to protect themselves from becoming infected
with the virus. HIV and AIDS education also plays a vital role in reducing stigma and
discrimination. Around the world, there continues to be a great deal of fear and
stigmatization of people living with HIV, which is fuelled by misunderstanding and
misinformation. This not only has a negative impact on people living with HIV, but can also
fuel the spread of HIV by discouraging people from seeking testing and treatment.

Annually, World AIDS Day is held worldwide on the first of December. The World AIDS
Day is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV and AIDS,
increases awareness of the dangers of HIV and AIDS, address the challenges of finding a
cure, discuss efforts to prevent the disease and the remove the obstacles faced by those
living with the virus. This is just yet one of the efforts done by parties who are determined to
curb the hazardous HIV. Many organizations, either under a government’s order or is a non-
government organization (NGO), actively educate various communities about the fatality of
HIV. Activities or programs carried out by them are campaigns, school visits, counselling and
more. All this lead to one goal; to save mankind from further agony caused by HIV. But
obstacles arise. It became a problem for the organizations to choose which communities
need education on HIV urgently. Who should be educated? What should be taught? When
they should be taught? Where is the area with high HIV infection risk? If all these questions
are not answered, efficient education cannot be carried out.

To solve all this problems, research and development must be carried out (R&D). As a
reference, here I mention a R&D which was carried out in Pune, India. This R&D is meant to
determine the level of awareness of HIV/AIDS knowledge of pregnant women in India. From
the R&D, it is found that the general knowledge of HIV/AIDS to be high in this population (A.
Shrotri, 2002). Besides in Pune, India, similar R&D was done in Nigeria. It was to evaluate
the awareness and knowledge of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and its prevention
among pregnant women in the country. The findings from this effort are that all the
respondents were aware of HIV/AIDS but the knowledge about mother-to-child
transmission is inadequate (Moses O. Abiodun, 2007).

Other than that, a R&D was carried out in Semey, Kazakhstan in which its purpose was to
evaluate the knowledge, risk behaviour and attitudes to voluntary counselling and testing
concerning HIV/AIDS among pregnant women in that population. The results suggest that
the pregnant women in Semey have poor knowledge about specific mother-to-child HIV
transmission (Emma Sandgren, 2008). The three R&D I mentioned earlier are to be
successful as they able to address the issues faced where the levels of HIV knowledge in the
communities are now crystal clear. But upon studying the trends of the three R&D, all of
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them were done solely for pregnant women. This suggests that from the point of educators’
view, pregnant women are more vulnerable to HIV infections due to the lack of HIV
knowledge. Although most of the R&D was done for pregnant women, I found one R&D
which is done among students. It was again done in Semey, Kazakhstan but with a change in
their sample space; 600 students rather than some pregnant women, and they varies from
high school students, university students, and medical students. Their results suggest that
among the students in Semey, knowledge concerning routes of transmission and means of
protection is good (Marit Hansson, 2008).

Finally we should stress the importance of HIV education for the future. No matter what
are the results of the current debates about the forms and ways of AIDS education or who
should be taught, it is necessary to remember, that being informed helps people to be
timely protected, which is very important in overcoming HIV in general. Even if we are lucky
in the future to have the medicine available to fight against AIDS, the best way will be still to
prevent it.

Sources:

http://www.deakin.edu.au/library/findout/research/litrev.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literature_review

http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review

http://her.oxfordjournals.org/content/11/3/327.full.pdf

http://www.havwb.org/aids-education.html

http://www.avert.org/aids-hiv-education.htm

http://gaylife.about.com/od/hivaid1/a/worldaidsday.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2543023/

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-698X/8/14

http://www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/Awareness_of_HIVAIDS_and_Household_Enviro_of_Pre
g_Women_India.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2574348/pdf/jnma00206-0060.pdf
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