Introduction:Youth is the period where individuals transform from dependent childhood to independent adults. The incidence of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) and HIV among youth in Sri Lanka, is rising.Objective: To assess the risk behaviours and vulnerabilities towards Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV among youth attending youth corps centres in the Western province of Sri Lanka. Method:A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out using a self-administered questionnaire among the trainees attached to youth corps centres (YCC) in Western province from October 2019 to February 2020.Results: Youth attached to YCC were educated and were from poor economic background. A fair proportion had a good level of knowledge on STIs and HIV. Knowledge was positively associated with age, educational level and the wealth quintile. There is a significant difference of knowledge across ethnic and religious categories. Only 15.5% reported being sexually active and the majority of them (79.2%) were having multiple partners. Only 41% agreed that they would use condoms in the future. Sense of invulnerability, peer pressure, embarrassment to buy were the main reasons for not using a condom. Major source of SRH information was the internet and the available SRH services are underutilized, mainly due to unawareness.Conclusions: Knowledge on STIs and HIV among these youth was satisfactory and a minority were sexually active. Risk behaviours were higher and access to available SRH services were poor.

IntroductionSri Lanka remains a low HIV prevalent country with an estimated sero-prevalence of less than 0.1% in the general population. The seroprevalence among key populations such as female sex workers (FSW), men who have sex with men (MSM), people who inject drugs (PWID) and beach boys is also <1%.(1) MSM were identified as one of the priority target groups for interventions because of their risky sexual behaviors and the incr easing sero-prevalance observed among the group in the recent years. ObjectiveTo ascertain the level of HIV risk behaviours among MSM who attended the STD clinic, Ragama and develop necessary interventions to reduce the potential for HIV infection among them. MethodA descriptive cross sectional study was carried out among the MSM's attending Ragama STD clinic over a period of three and a half years. MSM register and the patients records maintained at the STD clinic were used to extract the data for this study. There were 160 newly registered MSMs from January 2009 to July 2012 and all consecutive newly registered MSM were included in the sample. Data were analyzed by using the statistical package for the social sciences version 16 (SPSS v16). ResultsMajority of MSM were in their twenties (58%). Their level of education was relatively high and about 81% had Ordinary Level or higher qualifications. About 73% of them were engaged in some occupation while 4.4% admitted to commercial sex work as their occupation. With regard to the behavioural factors, half of them were bisexuals, and rate of insertive and r eceptiv e anal sex w er e 60% an d 42% respectively at their most recent sex. Majority of them had sex with casual or non-regular partners (62.4%). Level of condom use was not satisfactory. The condom use at last sex was 13% and consistent use with regular partners was 6.3%. Consistent condom use during anal sex was as low as 5.7%. Risk of HIV was further aggravated by the presence of STIs and use of recreational drugs. Half (50%) were found to be positive for STIs and out of which 20% had multiple diagnoses. Fortunately, there were no injecting drug users in this sample but they had used alcohol (30%) and smoked heroin (12%). ConclusionsMSM who attended the STD clinic, Ragama during the four years under study were a fairly literate community and about 68% of them were less than 30 years of age. Half of the MSM were bisexuals. Rate of insertive anal sex and receptive anal sex at

Introduction: Sri Lanka is considered a low prevalence country for HIV since the first case was diagnosed in 1986. In the recent years, the country is experiencing an increasing incidence ofHIV among young men who have sex with men (MSM). A record based baseline study was first conducted to collect the demographic and behavioral data among the group. Based on these findings , a self-administered questionnaire was then used at the first visit and 6 months later to assess the effectiveness of routine counseling provided in the sexually transmitted diseases clinic (STD clinic) on changing their behavior and attitudes.