AIDS education is not our only weapon
Decosas, J.
Family Planning World 2(1): 4
1992
PMID: 12317125 Document Number: 316630
The author criticizes international health professional and policy focus upon individual behavioral change as the key to preventing the further spread of AIDS, and instead writes in favor of fundamental social change. In addition to the negative effects of victim-blaming, discrimination, and incarceration which may result from programmatic focus upon the individual, no convincing evidence exists that the health education approach has the desired effect in stemming the transmission of HIV. While apparent success has been met from interventions targeted to select populations, greater individual exposure to education does not necessitate higher degrees of behavioral change. The author notes a critical failure to examine environmental and structural risk factors in the world's most affected societies, and suggests a need to re-evaluate and reorient our approach. HIV transmission in Africa and African cities typically with unbalanced gender mixes, and the fact that women in these settings tend to become infected at younger ages than men are 2 known observations deserving study and action. These phenomena are respectively based i colonial structure dictating large, all-male workforce communities, and a broad lack of educational opportunity for girls and women. Industrial development policies which minimize social disruption and remove men from the center of the workforce, and education policy ensuring greater gender equity in access to schooling should be adopted by national governments and international development donors as measures to directly combat the root of structural risk factors.