Should we teach only abstinence in sexuality education?
Why all the fuss?
Schools have become a battleground in the nation’s culture wars. In the fight over the hearts, minds-and libidos-of our nation’s teenagers, the latest skirmish involves sex education. The question is not whether education about sexuality belongs in the schools (there is well nigh universal accord on this score),1 but rather, how to approach the topic.
¿Debemos enseñar “solo-abstinencia” en la educación sexual?
¿por qué tanto alboroto?
Las escuelas se han convertido en el campo de batalla cultural de la nación. En la lucha por conquistar el corazón, mente — y líbidos — de nuestra juventud, la última contienda incluye la educación sexual. La pregunta no radica en que si la escuela es el lugar apropiado para enseñar educación sexual (en esto todos estamos de acuerdo),1 más bien es, como abordar el tema.
What Are HIV Prevention Needs of Adults Over 50?
Are older adults at risk?
Yes. Over 10% of all new AIDS cases in the US occur in people over the age of 50.1 In the last few years, new AIDS cases rose faster in middle age and older people than in people under 40.2 While many of these AIDS cases are the result of HIV infection at a younger age, many are due to becoming infected after age 50.
Politics rather than scientific evidence is driving the debate over abstinence-only vs. comprehensive sexuality education programs. It is an approach to making policy that may satisfy the needs of some adults, but does nothing to address the crucial needs of young people.
In health promotion, as in medical care, the informed practitioner usually chooses a proven effective strategy over one for which there is no indication of effectiveness. Anything else is malpractice.
Why is communication important?
Sexual activity begins early for many teens. Almost four of ten (37%) 9th graders have had intercourse, and nearly seven of ten (66%) have had intercourse by 12th grade.1 Every year three million teens, or almost a quarter (1 out of 4) of all sexually experienced teens, will contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
Because of threats to government funding, community based organizations that provide HIV prevention programs diversify their sources of income by seeking non-governmental funding, including funding from foundations.
This survey of foundations across the United States asked questions about the amount of money they spend on AIDS and HIV prevention, the types of prevention projects and populations their grants served, and the sources of AIDS information used by the foundation staff.
This monograph was produced as part of the Marketing HIV Prevention project, a collaborative project between the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California, San Francisco (Thomas J. Coates, , Director) and the Harvard AIDS Institute (Richard Marlink, MD, Executive Director). We would like to thank SmithKline Beecham Consumer Health Care, makers of OraSure, for its unrestricted grant in support of the Marketing HIV Prevention project.
Adherence to Combination Therapy in AIDS Clinical Trials (1997)
Chesney, M., Ickovics J., for the Recruitment, Adherence and Retention Committee of the ACTG (1997).
Si sabemos lo que funciona al prevenir el VIH — ¿porqué no sacamos mayor provecho?
¿qué hemos aprendido?
Hace quince años, en Los Angeles, CA, se diagnosticaron los primeros 5 casos de SIDA entre hombres homosexuales. Desde entonces el SIDA se ha extendido a más de medio millón de personas en los EEUU y actualmente es la causa líder de muertes entre los Norteamericanos de 25 a 44 años de edad.
The CHANGES Project: A Clinical Trial of Coping Effectiveness Training for HIV+ Gay Men is an innovative, theory-based coping intervention. The intervention–Coping Effectiveness Training–is designed to assist HIV+ gay men stay mentally healthy despite ongoing stress of HIV infection.
How Is Science Used in HIV Prevention?
Is science needed?
Yes. While prevention science will not give “the answer,” science fills in critical pieces of the prevention puzzle. Science used in conjunction with an agency’s experience with clients can strengthen, inspire, target, and best use limited resources in HIV prevention programs. This fact sheet will cover some of the basic elements of prevention science, what they mean, and their implications for service.
Qué necesitan los usarios de drogas en la prevención del VIH?
¿están los usuarios de drogas que no se inyectan a riesgo de infectarse?
Si. A pesar del alto riesgo de transmisión del VIH al compartir jeringas, la relación que existe entre el VIH y el uso de drogas va mucho mas allá del tema de las jeringas.
¿Cómo se utiliza la ciencia en la prevención del VIH?
¿es necesaria la ciencia? Sí. Aunque la ciencia de la prevención por si sola no ofrece la respuesta, esta posee algunas piezas críticas del rompecabezas de la prevención.
What Are Women Who Have Sex With Women’s HIV Prevention Needs?
Are women who have sex with women at risk for HIV?
HIV risk for women who have sex with women (WSW), like for all people, varies depending on what they do.
What Are Substance Abusers’ HIV Prevention Needs?
Are Substance Abusers Who Don’t Inject At High Risk Of Infection?
Yes. Although sharing used needles is a high risk for HIV transmission, substance abuse and HIV goes beyond the issue of needles. People who abuse alcohol, speed, crack cocaine, poppers or other non-injected drugs are more likely than non-substance users to be HIV positive and to become seropositive.
By the time Kevin Shancady walked into the Denver Department of Public Health to enroll in an HIV vaccine trial, he'd managed to put most of his fears behind him: fears of a government hostile to gay men, fears that researchers might inject volunteers with a dangerous vaccine. "So many people have died," he said, "and I feel an obligation to advance prevention research. I'm willing to take some risk.
Se pueden adaptar los programas de prevención del VIH?
¿para qué adaptarlos? Sabemos que muchas intervenciones de prevención del VIH han logrado hacer la diferencia y que los esfuerzos de prevención han ayudado a reducir las tasas de infección con VIH en diferentes poblaciones.1 Así como la epidemia del VIH cambia, igual ocurre con las cantidades y los grupos poblacionales afectados por el este virus.
Can HIV Prevention Programs Be Adapted?
Why adapt?
We know that many HIV prevention interventions have made a difference, and that prevention efforts have helped to lower rates of HIV infection in many different populations.1 But as the HIV epidemic changes, so too do the number and groups of people at risk for HIV.
