Awareness of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections among the Montenegrin seafarers

. HIV continues to be a major global public health issue, having claimed more than 35 million lives so far. Seafarers belong to a group of migrant workers whose working and living conditions are confined for a long time. Their way of life put them at a high risk of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted infections. The aim of this research is to assess the level of knowledge about HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among Montenegrin sailors. Methods. A research was carried out from October 2014 to April 2015 as a cross-sectional study. The research included 543 examinees. A research instrument was a particularly structured closed-type questionnaire created by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) which had been used in international and national researches. For data analysis we use SPSS for Windows 20.0. Results. The result that only 42.9% of the examinees know that HIV and STI transmission can be prevented by proper and frequent usage of condoms is very alarming. What is also alarming is the fact that more than a third of the examinees (38.9%) are aware of the fact that HIV can be transmitted by having sexual intercourse with a person who looks healthy, while 25.6% of them think that HIV cannot be transmitted in this way. Considering the level of education, statistically significant difference exists relating the awareness of HIV transmission by sharing a meal with a person who is HIV-positive (p=0.001). Statistically significant difference exists relating the awareness of the examinees about the transmission of HIV by using public toilets. (p=0.004). Conclusion. The results of this research have shown that beside the fact that awareness level of HIV and STI among the sailors has been heightened in comparison to 2008 the level of awareness is still not at a satisfactory level.