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Knowledge about how to avoid contracting HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, now counts as a life-or-death skill for young people in all countries.
When Michael Merson, Director of the WHO Global Programme on AIDS, was recently asked, "If you could do only one or two things for AIDS prevention what would they be?" he replied, "Sex education in all primary and secondary schools."
Up-to-date information on school curricula in all countries is not available. But the following list, compiled from WHO questionnaires sent out to governments in late 1992, shows how nations have been moving to incorporate AIDS education in the curriculum.
Worldwide 15 million people are now infected with HIV. One million are children.
Curriculum vitae
The following table shows which countries have introduced education about sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.
1985-------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweden 1986-------------------------------------------------------------------- Burkina Faso Norway Singapore Sri Lanka* 1987-------------------------------------------------------------------- Canada France Honduras Japan United States ** 1988-------------------------------------------------------------------- Barbados Burundi Luxembourg Seychelles Zaire 1989-------------------------------------------------------------------- Australia Kuwait Russian Fed. Tonga China Libya Slovenia Tunisia Germany Papua New Guinea Thailand Uganda 1990-------------------------------------------------------------------- Azerbaijan Colombia Grenada Madagascar Syria Bahamas Croatia Hong Kong New Zealand C. African Rep. Gabon Latvia Sierra Leone 1991-------------------------------------------------------------------- Argentina Ghana Morocco Saint Lucia Trinidad/Tobago Cameroon Iraq Netherlands Samoa Venezuela Congo Malawi Palau Senegal Viet Nam Czech Rep. Malaysia Panama Swaziland El Salvador Micronesia, Fed. States Togo 1992-------------------------------------------------------------------- Algeria Cyprus Kenya Spain United Kingdom Botswana Jamaica** Montserrat Sudan Zambia 1993-------------------------------------------------------------------- Italy AIDS in curriculum: starting year not specified------------------------- Austria Denmark Guatemala Lesotho Zimbabwe Belgium Gambia Israel Switzerland** AIDS not in curriculum (early 1993)------------------------------------- Albania Chad Ethiopia Maldives Rwanda Angola Chile Guinea Mauritius Saudi Arabia Antigua/Barbuda Comoros Guinea-Bissau Mozambique Slovakia Bangladesh Cook Islands Hungary Myanmar Solomon Islands Belize Costa Rica India Namibia Tanzania Benin Côte d'Ivoire Indonesia Nepal Turkey Bhutan Darussalam Iran Niger Tuvalu Bolivia Djibouti Jordan Nigeria Uruguay Brazil Dominican Rep. Kiribati Pakistan Vanuatu Brunei Ecuador Lao Rep. Paraguay Yemen Cambodia Egypt Lebanon Philippines Cape Verde Equatorial Lithuania Romania Curriculum information not supplied------------------------------------- Fiji Marshall Islands Ukraine* Sexually transmitted diseases.
Source: WHO questionnaires sent to governments in late 1992, cited in WHO, AIDS: images of the epidemic, 1994.