Only Condoms
Condoms are necessary for the success of HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, but they are by no means sufficient. Overall success is dependent on strong political leadership, appropriate funding, supportive policies, and well-planned and coordinated programs that work to influence attitudes and change behaviors and that provide the necessary services and supplies.
A
supportive policy and
social environment is key to the success of prevention
strategies.
Governments, in collaboration with a civil society that is well
attuned
to their communities’ cultural nuances, need to provide such an
environment. By addressing the policies, cultural practices and
economic
conditions that increase people’s vulnerability to HIV
infection, governments
and societies can encourage individuals’
behavior change.
Changing
attitudes and
behavior is at the heart of HIV prevention. A successful strategy
establishes the conditions and environment that allows people to
protect
themselves against infection, educates about sexual health and
HIV transmission,
and emphasizes abstinence and delaying the onset of
sexual activity for those
who are not sexually active. It encourages
having fewer sexual partners,
provides the skills to negotiate safer
sex, and promotes condom use for those
who are sexually active. A good
prevention strategy also treats STIs, provides
HIV counseling and
testing for those who want to know their HIV status, prevents
mother-to-child-transmission by protecting the mother from infection,
and treats
infected mothers. It should also address traditional
practices, such as female
genital cutting, that increase the risk of
HIV infection. Strategies should also
be in place to ensure the safety
of blood supplies and to address injecting drug
use.
Prevention
from
infection will remain for the foreseeable future the mainstay of the battle
against AIDS and the inclusion of condoms in prevention efforts is
essential.
The ever-changing nature of the virus that causes AIDS makes
finding a cure and
vaccine among the most urgent challenges of our
time, but development and
testing is still expected to take years, with
even more precious time required
to distribute widely.
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the full text
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