Government
A Model for Fighting AIDS
By Hope Cristol
When government talks about sex, people
listen.
IDS researchers in the 1990s expected the disease to devastate Brazil. Ten years
later, the country's incredibly successful prevention efforts have proved those
predictions wrong.
Brazil's government took the AIDS threat very seriously and took
immediate action. Besides free condom distribution, the government initiated widespread
education campaigns to get the message out in newspapers, on billboards, and even on the
airwaves by having the biggest pop stars sing targeted songs on the radio.
Like Brazil, Uganda has also proved bleak AIDS predictions wrong. What
sets these policy programs apart is their open communication about the disease. A frank,
far-reaching dialogue about the nature of HIV/AIDS, modes of transmission, and ways of
prevention is key, explains Kathryn Whetten, a Duke University health policy expert.
"In Uganda and Brazil, this discussion was started from the
top-down, but it can come from the grassroots as well," says Whetten, director of
Duke's Health Inequalities Program in the Center for Health Policy, Law, and Management.
"When I look at other countries at great risk now, we may find that their governments
will be less inclined to be so open."
Governments in AIDS-plagued Cambodia, Thailand, Nigeria, China, and
India are conflicted about how to handle the disease. One reason is the shame associated
with AIDS in these countries. Another reason is that strong religious beliefs--regardless
of the religion--tend to prohibit open discussions about stopping the spread of the
disease because the discussions involve sexuality and not just public health.
But it's not just Third World countries that would benefit from Brazil
and Uganda's open-dialogue initiatives.
The United States, too, announced new HIV prevention strategies this
year. And like Brazil, the United States has stabilized the number of new HIV cases per
year. Unlike Brazil, however, the United States is advocating sexual abstinence as its
preferred strategy for prevention. Further, the U.S. awareness campaigns don't deal
explicitly with drug use, anal sex, and prostitution.
"We are concerned about the conservative policies adopted by the
[U.S.] government on safe sex and intravenous drug users," Paulo Teixeira, director
of Brazil's National Coordinating Office for AIDS, told the Pacific News Service. Earlier
this year, the World Health Organization asked Teixeira to apply Brazil's strategies on a
global scale.
Souces: Pacific News Service, 275 9th Street, San Francisco, California
94103. Telephone 1-415-503-4170; Web site www.pacificnews.org.
Duke University, Office of News & Communications, 615 Chapel Drive,
Box 90563, Durham, North Carolina 27708. Telephone 1-919-684-2823; Web site
www.dukenews.duke.edu.
