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.
