Surgical patients constitute a potential source of retroviral infection to health care workers and other hospital in-patients. Though several studies have investigated different aspect of knowledge of HIV/AIDS, among different target groups of people. The current study investigates the knowledge and prevention methods of HIV/AIDS among patients attending surgical outpatient clinics in a teaching hospital in Sub-Saharan Africa. A 50 item questionnaire was used to obtain relevant data from the patients. A total of 332 patients were included, with mean age of 40.15 (± 15.51) years. Most of the patients 329 (99.1%) were aware of HIV/AIDS, however less than half (43.1%) of the patients have comprehensive knowledge about HIV/AIDS. Majority (96.7%) of the patients considered sexual intercourse as the major route of transmission. A large proportion of the patients would not want to engage in any form of contact with HIV/AIDS patients. About 96% of the patients believed that HIV/AIDS is a preventable disease through various methods such as avoidance of needle sharing (79.5%), avoidance of transfusion of unscreened blood (77.4%) among other various methods. Only 64 (19.3%) patients agreed to HIV/AIDS voluntary test and counseling. The main reason for not wanting to be tested among the patients who disagreed is fear of knowing their retroviral status, while 40 (62.5%) out of 64 patients who agreed to voluntary test and counseling will not like to declare their status if positive on account of social stigmatization and community neglect. We thus suggest the need for further enlightenment of the patients in our various clinics most especially in areas of misconception about HIV/AIDS transmission, benefit of voluntary test and declaration of one’s status