Factors associated with risky sexual behaviour among adolescents in Lesotho.

Abstract

Since 1993 HIV prevalence in Lesotho has increased 5 fold making Lesotho the third highest HIV infected country in the world. The government of Lesotho has not only declared HIV pandemic a crisis, but several efforts have been made to curb the spread of the disease that include encouraging Basotho to know their status as well as requesting government departments to use 2 percent of their budget allocations towards mitigation against the disease. The latest HIV prevalence figures from the 2004 Lesotho Demographic and Health Survey suggest that more still needs to be done in order to reverse the spread of the disease. Using the 2002 Lesotho Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire Survey (CWIQ) data the paper examined variables associated with risky sexual behaviour among Basotho adolescents. The results of the paper suggest that HIV programmes targeting girls should be different from those targeting boys. Results further indicate that HIV programmes might have to be district specific.