AWARENESS OF THE STUDENTS OF THE SPECIALTY „MIDWIFE“ ABOUT THE HUMAN PAPILLOMENA VIRUS
Keywords:
human papillomavirus, students, midwife, awarenessAbstract
Human papillomavirus is a DNA virus that attacks the epithelial cells of the skin and mucous membranes of the human body, and causes a number of malignancies, lesions and genital warts. As future providers of health services, mainly aimed at public awareness of prevention and prophylaxis of the virus, it is necessary for students to upgrade their knowledge and form competencies in their educational preparation in a university environment.
The purpose of the present is to study the level of awareness and knowledge of the students of the specialty "Midwife" from the Faculty of Public Health "Prof. Dr. Tsekomir Vodenicharov, MD, City of Sofia, regarding the human papilloma virus.
A cross-sectional survey of 95 students was conducted for the period September-October 2024. An author's questionnaire was used, including demographic characteristics and 17 positions to assess students' knowledge about ways of spreading HPV infection, its associated diseases and behavioral approaches to prevention.
Windows version 10 software was used to process the survey data and tabulate the results.
The results obtained from the study show that 95.8% of the respondents know the spread of the virus through genital and orogenital contact and that the risk of its transmission increases with an increase in the number of sexual partners. Almost half (45.2%) interpreted the virus as the cause of a bacterial infection and its treatment with antibiotics.
According to these results, we conclude that there are significant gaps in students' knowledge, especially regarding the prevention, ways of protection and the consequences of HPV infection, which highlight the need to expand education.
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