title: The Iranian female high school students' attitude towards people with HIV/AIDS: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has become an important public health hazard in Iran. It is believed that AIDS-related knowledge does not necessarily translate into behavior modification. Hence, it has been suggested that culturally appropriate educational campaigns should be implemented to obtain satisfactory outcomes. Here, we evaluated the female high school students' attitude towards HIV/AIDS in Tabriz, Iran to assess the cultural needs for the related educational programs and to discover sources of information about AIDS.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Anonymous, self-administered questionnaires were filled by the young female students. Among 300 students, 91% agreed that being an HIV carrier should not be an obstacle to obtaining education and employment. Moreover, 72.5% of the students declared that the community should be informed of HIV-positive people. In addition, one-tenth declared that they would feel extremely uncomfortable towards their HIV infected classmate. In addition, only 16% of the students stated that they would continue to shop at HIV infected grocer's store. The mass media and the experts were the major source and the most reliable source of information about AIDS, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tabrizian female students have overall negative attitudes towards HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS related educational campaigns should target the students, society and the families with emphasizing the leading roles of health staff.
authors.affiliation: Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Daneshgah St,, Tabriz, Iran. kghabili@gmail.com
authors.forename: Kamyar
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ghabili
authors.forename: Mohammadali M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Shoja
authors.forename: Pooya
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kamran