The family can be referred to as a group related by kinship, residence, or close emotional attachments (Mattresses and Hill 1987). The strength of the kinship family, often called extended family, may be inferred from four indices, namely; the residing of two or more related nuclear families together, engaging in joint activities, the giving of assistance to individual related persons based on social expectations of such assistance, and having friendship networks of relatives. In spite of the rate of urbanization, African societies still maintain kinship ties but the quality in these kinship ties has reduced over time. Thus Aina et al (2003) foun d out that kinship networks are loosing their strongholds and relevance in the Nigeria urban communities. This is because, the urban transfers weaken bounding and predisposes to exposures with people of diverse backgrounds and cultures.
Relying majorly on primary data, the paper examines the degeneration in Yoruba traditional family structure. It argues that, this is one of the factors responsible for the problems militating against the curbing of the spread of HIV/AIDS and care for HIV/AIDS patients in Yoruba society. The paper concludes that, although, there are so many factors militating against the diagnosis and care for HIV/AIDS patients among the Yorubas, the degeneration of the family structure remains on of the most important factors. Hence, in our efforts to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS among the Yorubas, there is need for the revitalization of the family structure, not necessarily in the way it was but in a way to function more effectively.