The Italian AIDS 'hot-line': providing information to the people.
The Italian AIDS hot-line has recently completed its first two operational years. Established as an emergency service, it was initially overloaded with calls, under the emotional impact of a new disease. As the average number of calls settled to around a hundred per day, a wider approach aimed at the concerns raised by callers has been possible. A particular effort has been made to handle psychological and social aspects of HIV infections. A large proportion of the questions analyzed (62,500) deal with doubts about transmission (30%), reliability of diagnostic tests (15%), and handling individual situations. Some categories of callers, such as drug users, parents or relatives of HIV-infected people, and seropositives often require experienced telephone counselling. HIV-positive callers follow the proportional distribution of AIDS cases in Italy: intravenous drug users forming the majority, followed by homosexuals and finally heterosexual subjects (reaching 10%, a value in accordance with trend projections). The demand for advice has increased over time, together with an evident refinement of question content.
Benedetti
P
P
Centro Operativo AIDS (AIDS Operational Centre), Istituto Superiore di Sanità (National Institute for Health) Roma, Italy.
Zaccarelli
M
M
Giuliani
M
M
Di Fabio
M
M
Valdarchi
C
C
Pezzotti
P
P
Tumbarello
M
M
Greco
D
D
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000635:transmission; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003219:Confidentiality; D005260:Female; D015277:Hotlines / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors