Although, according to recent studies, HIV prevalence has leveled and is even declining in some cases, it is still a major concern especially in the developing world. For this reason, this paper is a fitting contribution to the discourse on the role of knowledge in influencing behavior as it relates to HIV/AIDS.

The paper starts by reiterating what is already known regarding the HIV/AIDS disease burden and a review of the studies that have already been done. This review shows that the assumed relationship between knowledge, attitudes and behavior does not always hold. This study, thus, aims to ascertain what knowledge the Peruvian population have about HIV, their attitudes towards AIDS whether AIDS-related knowledge level and attitudes were in any way related to their educational levels.

In this broad context, this study sets out to seek what knowledge students in private schools had about HIV/AIDS and the bearing that this knowledge has on their attitudes and behavior. The study shows that answers to these questions, with respect to students in public schools, are already available. Similar studies in private schools have not yet been carried out and, in this regard, the study makes a useful contribution because of its focus on the knowledge, attitudes and practices of Peruvian youth in private schools.

In this study the significant factors were found to be age and year of study, the educational levels of parents for male students and the educational level of the mother for the female students. It was also found that female students had better attitudes generally, and more especially so if they came from certain regions of the country. This study found that levels of HIV/AIDS-related knowledge influenced attitudes, but not protective behaviors. However, the study found that attitudes do influence protective practices, although it did not find a direct influence of knowledge on behavior.

What the study does not tell us, however, are the cultural and socio-economic characteristics of the students who attend public schools on the one hand, and those who attend private schools on the other. It is not clear to what extent, in Peru or elsewhere, attendance of public or private schools might be metaphors for underlying social, cultural, religious or economic differences that might be reflected in HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and behavior.

Have carried out unpublished research, attended seminars and conferences and have taught graduate classes on the subject.

6 and 7:  I would suggest to add more international data on Knowledge, attitudes and practices in the introduction and reduce the prevalence data as the study is not etiologic but a KAP study.

10. However, if it is APA style, I would suggest to improve the references

11. Nevertheless, knowledge should be part of the keywords.

As a professor of public health for 11 years in the Democratic Republic of Congo/ Sub-Saharan Africa, I'm involved in preventive actions against HIV/AIDS, presiding the Anti-AIDS committee in my University, supporting PLWHIV associations, and advising several theses related to KAP studies on HIV/AIDS and other public health issues.

This is an interesting study of HIV knowledge, attitudes and behavior among private high school students in Peru. The results are mostly in agreement with other published studies. There is a paradoxical finding that knowledge correlates with attitudes and attitudes correlate with behavior, however knowledge does not correlate with behavior.

The logical follow-up to this study is to develop a program to increase knowledge and measure the impact on attitudes and behavior. This study suggests that increasing knowledge would not have an impact on behavior.

Many of the references are from non-English (Spanish) literature; it would be useful to list the titles in English with a designation that the article is written in Spanish.

Medical Director, County STD Clinic

The authors cite tables in the discussion that should be inserted only in the results. The discussion is poor in relation to other literatures.
Some references are many books and papers presented. There is a need to implement more articles from renowned authors who discuss this subject.

Adolescents and sexual behaviour