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Los programas educativos sobre la sexualidad y el VIH tienen varias metas: disminuir los embarazos no planeados, reducir las enfermedades de transmisión sexual (ETS) incluyendo la del VIH y mejorar la salud sexual de los jóvenes. En 2005 en los EE.UU., el 63% de todos los alumnos del último año de preparatoria (high school) habían tenido relaciones sexuales, pero sólo el 21 % de las alumnas usaron pastillas anticonceptivas antes del último coito y sólo el 70 % de los varones usaron condón en el último coito. En el 2000, el 8.4 % de las chicas entre 15 y 19 años se embarazaron, produciendo una de las tasas más altas de embarazo adolescente en el mundo occidental industrializado. Casi la mitad de los nuevos casos de ETS en EE.UU. del año 2000 (9.1 millones) se presentaron en jóvenes entre los 15 y los 24 años de edad. Algunos de los numerosos factores que influyen en la conducta sexual y el uso de protección entre los adolescentes tienen poco que ver con las relaciones sexuales, por ejemplo: la crianza en una comunidad desfavorecida, la falta de apego a los padres o el fracaso escolar. Otros factores de naturaleza sexual como las creencias, los valores, las percepciones de normas de los pares, las actitudes y habilidades relacionadas con la conducta sexual y con el uso del condón o de anticonceptivos, son factores en los que los programas de enseñanza potencialmente pueden incidir para generar cambios de conducta. Estos programas no pueden por sí solos eliminar las conductas sexuales riesgosas, pero sí pueden ser una pieza eficaz dentro de una iniciativa integral.

The National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty International Center in collaboration with a number of other agencies sponsored the Fogarty Workshop on International HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Opportunities on April 18-20, 1998. The AIDS Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco hosted the Workshop. The purpose of the workshop was to identify a package of effective HIV prevention interventions and develop a list of priority research goals that combine biomedical, behavioral and social interventions for HIV prevention in developing countries. The goal was to encourage research that would be feasible and relevant for developing countries with limited resources.

By the end of 2002, over 2 million adults were incarcerated in the US, and 93% of those were men. African Americans and Latinos were incarcerated at greater rates than Whites in the US, 7.6 times greater for African Americans and 2.6 times greater for Latinos. Nearly 40% of incarcerated men were under the age of 30. Young men of color are at high risk of incarceration and the health problems related to incarceration. These young men also are our neighbors, frequently passing in and out of jail and prison and returning back to the community. Men who are incarcerated have disproportionate rates of HIV, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and hepatitis. Rates of HIV are 8-10 times higher for incarcerated persons than for the general US population; hepatitis C rates are 9-10 times higher, and STD rates among men entering jails are as high as 35%. Men leaving prison face numerous challenges that may impede their ability to protect themselves against these diseases. Men often must re-establish relationships, find employment and housing and deal with addictions and mental health issues. Prisons present a unique opportunity for HIV/STD education and skills building to help men avoid risk after their release from prison.

The Mpowerment Project is a community-level HIV prevention intervention designed to reduce the frequency of unprotected anal intercourse among young gay/bisexual men, ages 18-29, by mobilizing young gay men to support each other about safer sex and to build a stronger, healthier young gay men’s community. It is the only scientifically developed and empirically tested intervention that has been shown to reduce HIV sexual risk taking behaviors among young gay men.

• Please see the Mpowerment website for full curriculum and replication materials.