[Equitable AIDS prevention].
According to the December 2006 UNAIDS report, by the end of 2006 approximately 39.5 million people in the world were living with HIV/AIDS. In 2006, about 4.3 million people worldwide became infected and 8,000 people a day died of HIV/AIDS. About half of the new infections occurred in young people aged between 15 and 24. In December 2004, The Lancet published an international consensus on the "ABC strategy" for AIDS prevention, which can be considered a turning point in HIV/AIDS prevention. The Lancet Consensus recommends segmenting information, depending on the audience to be targeted. The Consensus insisted that the first priority for young people should be to encourage "abstinence" or postponing the start of sexual relations. Once sexual relations are initiated, a return to "abstinence" or maintaining mutually monogamous sexual relations with an uninfected person should be encouraged. If the campaigns targets people at high risk of exposure to HIV exposure the first priority should be to encourage the correct and consistent use of condoms, but warning them that condom use can reduce, but not eliminate, the risk of infection. Little attention and almost no resources have been devoted to "risk avoidance " interventions, such as delaying the start of sexual relations or maintaining mutually monogamous sexual relations (components A and B). Nevertheless, scientific evidence indicates that risk avoidance; which has been largely neglected in the international response to the disease, is probably what is desperately needed to stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic and alleviate its consequences at all levels.
López Del Burgo
Cristina
C
Dpto. Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública Edificio de Investigación, Facultad de Medicina Universidad de Navarra C/ Irunlarrea 1, 31080 Pamplona. cldelburgo@unav.es
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D012935:Social Justice