AIDS Fight Must Include Behavioral Approaches
August 6, 2008 by Becky Ramsey
Filed under Business
AIDS experts state that the epidemic can not be “treated” away, and that prevention efforts must become more intense and sophisticated and must incorporate behavior modifications such as safer sex, reduced drug use and needle exchange, and circumcision.
The Global H.I.V. Prevention Working Group, in a new report, states that not only do prevention efforts need to be stepped up, but they also need to address negative perceptions about prevention that include pessimism, the fact that changing human behavior is difficult, and that measuring prevention impact is difficult. The group’s August report can be found here.
Sources:
“Behavioral Approaches Overlooked in AIDS Fight” – The New York Times, August 6, 2008
One of the keys is to increase testing so that cases are identified earlier. However, until the bad stigma or the “you deserved to catch it” mentality are removed people will not feel free to get tested.
Stigma continues to be a factor in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and in many ways, efforts to end the stigma of living with HIV or AIDS is a separate fight of its own.