CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
One of the leading causes of premature death in the last twenty years has been the scourge of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The disease, AIDS, was first heard of in 1981. Within twenty years, it spread to all continents of the world and remains a great killer to which no man has found a solution. In 1988 alone, about 5.8 million new cases occurred, bringing the total number of people living with Human Immuno-deficiency Virus/AIDS by December, 1998 to approximately 33.4 million. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS, 2007) estimates that there are now 40 million people living with HIV or AIDS worldwide. Since the beginning of the epidemic, AIDS has killed more than 25 million people worldwide. It has replaced malaria and tuberculosis as the world’s deadliest infectious disease among adults and is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. Fifteen million children have
been orphaned by the epidemic. Young people worldwide are the sub-group most affected while about
Department of Educational Foundations and Councelling, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
Department of Psychology, Obafemi Awolowo University,Ile-Ife, Nigeria
Depratment of Local Government Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
Department of Accounting & Business Education,University of Ado-Ekiti, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria
half of new HIV cases are occurring in people aged 15-24. According to Okonofua (1999) it is no longer news that the Human Immuno- deficiency Virus is now well established in Nigeria. Although the virus was first identified in Nigeria in 1988, over 4 million Nigerians were estimated to have contacted the virus by the end of 1998. This makes Nigeria the second country in Africa with the heaviest burden of the disease, in terms of absolute number of those afflicted, second only to South Africa.
The disease has now permeated the entire Nigeria society. It affected men and women in urban and rural areas, as well as adolescents, commercial sex workers, traders, high profile politicians and socialites, servicemen and women, truck drivers and students. Indeed, everyone must feel vulnerable to the disease, which is fast rampaging the most productive age groups in the Nigerian population. Several thousands have died from the disease, and this has brought untold hardship and disorganization to many Nigeria families.
In Nigeria, the burden of HIV/AIDS on the citizenry is alarming. Statistics on the spread of the disease show that Nigeria records about 1,400 new infections every day. This figure represents one new infection per minute. By October 1998, it is believed that Nigeria records about 571,036 cases of HIV infection. In the hierarchy of the world’s most infected AIDS nations, Nigeria is said to occupy the 27 position, constituting 8.9 percent of global infection and 12.5 percent of the African HIV/AIDS burden.
Professor Debo Adeyemi, one time health minister in Nigeria, describes the spread of HIV/AIDS as
alarming. According to him, about 25 million adults in Nigeria are already infected with the disease. He
reasons that with his figure, assuming that there are no new cases of infection, fatality from the disease
will surpass the totality of deaths recorded from the Nigeria civil war by the year 2010.
The disease up till now has got no cure despite many years of drug and vaccine research activities.
Although few drugs are now available that could prolong the lives of infected persons through reduction of
the load of the virus and improvement in the number of white blood cells. Such drugs are, however, very
expensive, globally, and quite scarce in Nigeria. Good nutrition and prompt treatment of presenting
diseases can also prolong the life of an infected person. Thus, the only effective way of controlling
HIV/AIDS, presently, is by prevention, with education as the main thrust of this approach.
How counsellors react to a counsellee and how they communicate these feelings are of critical
importance in counselling. Adolescents come to the counsellor for help and understanding. They bring to
the counsellor confused feeling, ideas, fears and hopes with which they are struggling. The counsellors
attitudes toward them determine in large measure the extent to which they will attempt to cope
constructively with their problems and undertake positive actions. If the counsellor demonstrates a
genuine acceptance of these adolescents, they will feel that they are received.
Inadequate knowledge of HIV/AIDS among adolescents, particularly secondary school students calls for a
study that will assess the role of school counselors in the prevention of the disease. This study
specifically investigated the level of awareness of HIV/AIDS among secondary school students in Osun
State and assessed the precautionary measures taken by secondary school students against the
transmission of HIV/AIDS. This was with a view to assessing the role of school counselors in the
prevention of the pandemic among secondary school students in Osun State.