Stigmatization and discrimination of HIV/AIDS patients is an important issue specially in caring institutions. This would be minimized, among nurses who play a major role in these institutions, by improving AIDS knowledge and AIDS attitude. This study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of an AIDS education program on trainee nurses' AIDS knowledge and AIDS attitudes. Randomized controlled, pretest post-test study was carried out on students in National School of Nursing, Sri Lanka. All participants, experimental group (N = 65) and control group (N = 64), completed a self-administered instruments of HIV/AIDS knowledge scale and a AIDS attitudes scale at pre-test and post-test point. A focused AIDS education program was conducted for the experimental group. Differences in AIDS knowledge and attitudes, as evident by the differences in answers for pretest and post-test, in the two groups were compared. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences for WIN 18.0. Both AIDS knowledge (p < .001) and AIDS attitudes (p < .001) of the student nurses improved significantly after the intervention. Sub-dimensions of HIV/AIDS knowledge scale, namely HIV course and manifestations (t = -6.84, p < .001), HIV transmission (t = -7.28.44, p < .001), occupational risk of HIV and prevention (t = -10.59, p < .001) and management of HIV and anti-retroviral treatment (t = -12.81, p < .001) all showed significant improvement in the experimental group. Sub-dimensions of AIDS attitude scale, namely blame and judgment (t = -3.35, p = .001), attitudes towards imposed measures (t = -5.44, p < .001) and attitudes in comfortable in dealing with a HIV/AIDS patients (t = -4.25, p < .001) also showed significant improvement. This AIDS Education Program showed statistically significant improvement in the AIDS knowledge and AIDS attitudes of student nurses and its usefulness in reducing stigma and discrimination of People Living with HIV and its potential for future use in Sri Lanka and other countries with similar background.

Background: HIV infection causes direct endothelial dysfunction or damage and premature atherosclerosis. HIV induced endothelial dysfunction may manifest as peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Understanding PAD scenario and its relation with antiretroviral therapy (ART) may help to improve quality of life and to prevent critical limb ischemia or amputation. Till date no follow up study has shown the effect of ART on PAD. This study explores association of ART with changes in PAD status and severity.Methods & Materials: In this ART clinic based cohort study conducted at a tertiary care hospital in eastern India, 193 consecutive ART eligible HIV positive patients of age between 18-49 years underwent ankle brachial pressure index (ABPI) measurement before ART initiation and after one year of receiving ART to examine the effect of ART on PAD. ABPI values less than 0.9 or more than 1.4 at rest were taken as abnormal.Results: Prevalence of PAD before the initiation of ART was 30.57%. The prevalence dropped to 12.95% after 6 months and to 3.62% after 1 year of treatment. Mean age of the patients whose ABPI improved was lower than those in whom low ABPI persisted (p value 0.05). ABPI improvement was significant among people who were asymptomatic, belonged to urban population, had normal BMI, good functional status, lower WHO stage and who had no history of tuberculosis (p value< 0.05).Conclusion: Prevalence of PAD decreased significantly after one year of ART. Routine ABPI measurement and early initiation of ART may reduce PAD morbidity and improve quality of life.

Objective: Prevalence of HIV is low in Sri Lanka. However, the incidence is rising gradually. Reducing stigmatization and discrimination of people living with HIV is important in health care settings. Nurses who have an important role in caring for HIV patients should have good knowledge to achieve this. The aim of this study was to identify the specific areas of knowledge deficit on HIV/AIDS among 2nd year nursing student in Sri Lanka.Methods: In-depth analysis of the knowledge component of the pretest responses of a study assessing the effectiveness of AIDS education program on nursing students’ AIDS knowledge and AIDS attitudes in Sri Lanka.Results: The results show poor knowledge of HIV and important knowledge gaps in areas of modes of transmission of HIV, mother to child transmission and universal precautions. Very high percentage believed they are at higher risk of contracting HIV due to the nature of their job, while the knowledge on post-exposure prophylaxis was poor.Conclusions: Correction of these knowledge gaps and improving knowledge on HIV/AIDS among nursing students is very important as they are going to be future nurses and they have a very important role in reducing the discrimination and stigmatization of people living with HIV.