Preventing HIV in Developing Countries: Biomedical and Behavioral Approaches (Aids Prevention and Mental Health) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0306459612 ISBN 13: 9780306459610

Publisher: Plenum Publishing Co.,N.Y., 1999

Synopsis

Globally, action to prevent HIV spread is inadequate. Over 16,000 new infections occur every day. Yet we are not helpless in the face of disaster, as shown by the rich prevention experience analyzed in this valuable new compendium. "Best pr- tice" exists-a set of tried and tested ways of slowing the spread of HIV, of persuading and enabling people to protect themselves and others from the virus. Individually, features of best practice can be found almost everywhere. The tragedy, on a world scale, is that prevention is spotty, not comprehensive; the measures are not being applied on anywhere near the scale needed, or with the right focus or synergy. The national response may concentrate solely on sex workers, for example. Elsewhere, efforts may go into school education for the young, but ignore the risks and vulnerability of men who have sex with men. Action may be patchy geographically. AIDS prevention may not benefit from adequate commitment from all parts and sectors of society, compromising the sustainability of the response. In some countries matters are still worse-there is still hardly any action at all against AIDS and scarcely any effort to make HIV visible. It is no wonder that the epidemic is still emerging and in some places is altogether out of control.

About this title

Review

`This is a highly recommended book for all academic and medical libraries. it should be read by anyone who is administering any HIV prevention program.'
AIDS Book Review Journal
`This volume provides a practical, accessible compendium of HIV prevention strategies implemented in developing countries, including accounts of the difficulties encountered and the degree of success achieved. The book also offers specific tools and tangible hope for reducing the impact of the epidemic in regions where combination therapies are inaccessible.'
American Journal of Public Health, 89:12 (1999)
`Preventing HIV in Developing Countries provides an up-to-date compendium of projects designed to reduce HIV transmission among a variety of high-risk populations in several countries. Any progress in making a serious dent in the HIV crisis that disproportionally affects the developing world is in part dependent on sharing the lessons learned. This volume provides an excellent foundation. It is written in a clear style, which makes it accessible to a variety of audiences. It is not a how-to-do-it manual, but provides an important shortcut to essential information that s otherwise difficult to obtain.'
Contemporary Psychology APA Review of Books, 46:5 (2001)

From the Author

reviews notable prevention interventions implemented to date
The tremendous resources, both material and human, being invested in HIV prevention efforts and the toll the pandemic is taking globally make it critical at this juncture to learn more about the content and outcomes of prevention strategies tried with or without success in the developing world. Towards this end our book brings together leaders in the field of HIV prevention to review notable biomedical and behavioral interventions that have been implemented to date primarily, though not exclusively, in developing nations. The chapters describe strategies employed, technological and political challenges, implementation problems and opportunities, and successes or failures in terms of results achieved. The book is divided into three parts. The first part reviews the increasingly diverse and fragmented nature of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. The second part examines biomedical interventions currently being used in developing countries (e.g. voluntary HIV testing and counseling, methods for improving the safety of blood supply) as well as those being researched (microbicides, physical barriers, and pre-emptive therapies to prevent HIV infection following exposure to the virus). The third part reviews behavioral interventions operating at the individual, community, and structural/environmental level. In this third part chapters focus on interventions implemented for specific target groups (commercial sex workers, adolescents, workers away from their families, injection drug users, men who have sex with men) as well as mass population-based approaches. The book concludes with a discussion of how intervention research may play a more useful role in informing program planning and policy making. The challenge in HIV prevention is to do it most effectively, at the least cost, and with the greatest long term viability in terms of continuation, and expansion, of benefits realized. Learning from others' efforts may inform the development of future interventions, enabling us to better meet that challenge.

Edition details

• Publisher: Plenum Publishing Co.,N.Y.
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0306459612
• ISBN 13: 9780306459610
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 423
• Editor: Gibney Laura, DiClemente Ralph J., Vermund Sten H.