AIDS prevention through health promotion : Facing sensitive issues

Abstract

Many health promotion planners and educators working in AIDS control programmes have encountered major difficulteis in their efforts to design and implement information and education programmes about HIV infection. Often these difficulties stem from peoples's instictive reactions to the AIDS epidemic -reactions of fear, denial and blame. To understand and allow for these reactions, health promoters need to have considerable insight into the sensitive issues surrounding AIDS, such as the refusal of certain groups to acknowledge that a problems exists, the difficulties encountered in designing effective messages without offending religious beliefs or moral convictions, the social taboos that discourage open discussion of sexual behaviour, and the extreme fear felt by some at low risk of HIV infection

The case studies presented in this publication describe how different health promotion programmes have dealt with the emotional reactions of the different groups involved: the health promoters themselves, target audiences, HIV-infected patients, and decision-makers. While the approach adopted in any particular situation is dictated to a large extent by local conditions and customs, the insights offered by these case studies are likely to be applicable to a wide range of circumstances. The experiences described will be of interest to workers in AIDS control programmes throughout the world