Knowledge and perception on HIV premarital counseling and testing among unmarried young people of Kintampo town in the republic of Ghana,

I.4. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

VCT service is planned to be implemented in the District in the future. That is why exploratory studies are being conducted to gather useful information in this pre-VCT implementation period. This second pre-VCT implementation study focusing on HIV PCT among unmarried young adults aged between 15-30 years is conducted as an evidence-based research. In fact being a follow-up and a complementary research to the previous preliminary study on «Formative research for the implementation of VCT service in Kintampo»³², the present study actually looks at the health need of HIV PCT expressed indirectly by majority of respondents in that survey which targeted all the community members both married and unmarried ones aged between 15-49 years. In fact in this previous study 92.1% of respondents said not every body should go for HIV VCT, 15.7% mentioned that the main reason to go for VCT is when one wants to get married while 93% said VCT benefit is to help decide whether to marry or have children. All these findings clearly and relevantly support the need of HIV premarital health care services and strongly demonstrate how VCT implementation in Kintampo District should go together with the implementation of HIV PCT as it is recommended by WHO/UNAIDS ^10,11,42.

Now since most people who get married in Kintampo are in the age range between 15-40 years (Source: marriage registration in Kintampo Magistrate court and data from some churches) while the most affected by HIV/AIDS in Ghana and in the District are in the age group of 15-49 years²⁹, also because it is reported worldwide that more than half of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) were infected before they were 25 years of age with young people aged 15-24 accounting for more than 50 percent of all HIV infections worldwide⁴⁴ and in Ghana ²⁹, implementing HIV premarital examinations in the area will help to detect those young adults unknown carriers of the HIV/AIDS; so that appropriate measures can be taken early to reduce the HIV spread and further new infections in new couples/families and their offspring.

Given the fact that authors and WHO recognize that operational researches on human sexuality perception and counseling are strongly needed in order to improve reproductive sexual health^{7,9,11,54,55,56}, and considering that a nation's collective attitude and perception towards human sexuality is culturally determined and can profoundly influence several aspects of reproductive health and related policy-making ³⁹, including HIV premarital examinations, we hope that the study results on knowledge and perceptions towards HIV premarital medical examination will constitute a data base on which policy makers can refer to in examining the matter on the horizon.

Knowing fewer researches have been undertaken on the ground on HIV PCT, we think the study will generate practical suggestions from primary beneficiaries, that District Health Authorities in Kintampo could take into account in order to implement a highly locally owned and compatible HIV PCT program which meets the real expectations of the beneficiary population and consequently culminates in success, like it has been proved in many other parts of the world. ^10,57