When the HIV/AIDS epidemic's toll including 40 million people living with the disease and 3 million having died in 2001, the world's health and service organizations are increasingly calling for better access to care and treatment for people living in the developing nations that share the brunt of the epidemic's ...

In order to examine the impact on HIV-positive people of publicly disclosing their status, in-depth interviews were conducted with 75 HIV-positive speakers from 20 countries in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. Decreasing stigma and stopping new infections were equally strong motivators in becoming community AIDS educators. Although few respondents were ...

AIM: To describe the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic in Brazil and analyze the impact of federal government measures addressing the problem since its onset. METHOD: Retrospective review of AIDS epidemic data from its onset in 1980 up to the last published data in June 2001. RESULTS: AIDS was first ...

HIV/AIDS has reached pandemic proportions, and is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In 2001, the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS set out several aims with respect to reducing the effect and spread of HIV/AIDS, and an expanded response in low-income and middle-income countries was initiated. Here we ...

Community based organizations (CBOs) play a frontline role in HIV/AIDS prevention activities. CBOs face formidable challenges to effective delivery of HIV prevention services including client characteristics such as homelessness and CBO characteristics such as limited resources and staff turnover. Despite these obstacles, CBOs are generally well positioned to deliver services ...

In recent years, employees in AIDS service organizations have witnessed a number of changes and challenges in their work, ranging from shifts in the population primarily affected by HIV disease, treatment advances and its implications, and changes in administrative factors such as cuts in funding, reorganization, and changes in job ...

Political will or commitment toward the HIV epidemic has been lacking in most African countries. Although most countries are in denial, a few have moved into recognition of the epidemic. Only two countries, Senegal and Uganda, have moved into mobilization. Ineffectiveness is judged by increasing HIV prevalence rates and declining ...

PURPOSE: To examine demographic characteristics and work conditions of home care aides, nursing home aides, and hospital aides in the late 1980s and late 1990s. DESIGN AND METHODS: This study replicated a previous study which examined the Current Population Survey (CPS) March supplement from 1987 to 1989. The present study ...

Although it seems possible in a developing country context such as Kenya, given appropriate inputs and a sound approach, to shift a sexually transmitted disease (STI) epidemic from phase II to III, it is not entirely clear how to go beyond this stage, to low levels of endemicity or even ...

HIV/AIDS strikes with the greatest frequency in sub-Saharan Africa, a region lacking resources to deal with this epidemic. To keep millions more people from dying, wealthy countries must provide more help. Yet deeply ingrained biases may distance the sick from those who could provide far more aid. One such prejudice ...

Social workers provide senior citizens with varied services in diverse settings and are in a position to assume leadership in slowing the spread of AIDS among this age group. Unfortunately older people often do not receive the knowledge needed to protect themselves against infection. Historically, older Americans have been largely ...

AIDS Drug Assistance Programs in several states already have to put HIV-infected people on waiting lists to receive life-saving antiretroviral drugs because of budget shortfalls, and AIDS advocates say this problem will continue through 2002 and 2003 unless Congress provides a financial boost to HIV programs. Activists also say the ...

The primary objective of this study was to examine the impact of recent advances in the treatment of HIV/AIDS on AIDS service providers. The study surveyed the motivations, stressors, and rewards of workers employed in AIDS service organizations. Employees of AIDS service organizations play a valuable role in providing services ...

Obscenity may be in the eye of the community beholder, but that apparently won't stop the federal government from taking a peek. Federal officials are conducting comprehensive reviews of all CDC-funded HIV/AIDS program activities, and federal funding for HIV/AIDS prevention programs now is at risk if local review panels fear ...

AIDS advocates and clinicians express alarm about an investigation that has been launched targeting all federally funded HIV/AIDS prevention programs. The Department of Health and Human Services intends to assess the programs' materials to make certain they adhere to 1992 requirements of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Critics ...

In spite of recent advances in treatment and care available in most developed countries, the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to spread throughout the developing world. Structural inequalities continue to fuel the epidemic in all societies, and HIV infection has increasingly been concentrated in the poorest, most marginalized sectors of society in ...

There is now an acknowledged burden of AIDS and the HIV in Nigeria. In treatment centres, AIDS-related disorders account for up to 40% of admissions, while many communities have recorded regular losses within the last five years. In December 1999, the federal government announced that 2.9 million people (or 5.4% ...

HIV/AIDS is a serious public health problem in Swaziland, a small land-locked Southern African country. The epidemic affects all subpopulations, but women are increasingly at risk for contracting the disease. Focus groups were conducted in a rural area to obtain qualitative information on the rural dimensions of HIV/AIDS, vulnerability to ...

HIV/AIDS social work was changed fundamentally by the introduction of more effective medications to combat the disease, and by the spread of HIV/AIDS beyond the gay community to intravenous drug users and their sexual partners, women, children, adolescents, and people of color. This paper describes the professional challenges HIV/AIDS social ...

AIDS was first diagnosed in Nigeria in 1986. By that time, the government had enough information from experiences in other African countries to goad it into quickly establishing a control program. Nigeria's National AIDS Control program, however, fell victim to years of military arbitrariness and uncertainty. It was underfunded and ...

HIV/AIDS is hypothesized to have substantive negative impact on health status and economic development of individuals, households, communities and nations. The objective of this study was to estimate the burden of HIV/AIDS on GDP in the WHO African Region using a production function approach. The economic burden analysis was done ...

Problems posed by HIV/AIDS differ from those of past epidemics by virtue of unique properties of the causative agent, dramatic societal changes of the late 20th century, and the transition of medical practice from a professional ethic to a technology-dependent business ethic. HIV/AIDS struck during the coming-of-age of molecular biology ...

This article explores the relevance of international human rights law in the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic at national and international levels. Public health advocates can use arguments based on this body of law to promote responses to HIV/AIDS that reflect sound public health principles and documented best practice. Development ...

Early in the pandemic, psychologists who engaged in HIV/AIDS research and practice or care relied more on their "general" psychological knowledge and training than on HIV/AIDS-specific information or training for combating the disease. In the past two decades much has been gained from the contributions of psychologists working in the ...

The prevalence of HIV infection and the incidence of AIDS are higher among prison inmates compared to the general population. Although African Americans and Hispanics constitute approximately 13% and 12.5% of the population, respectively, they are over-represented among the prison population. The current trend in the adult/adolescent AIDS cases among ...

KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa is currently the site of the world's fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemic, where it is estimated that between 30 and 40 percent of the adult population is seropositive for HIV. With support from local politicians and members of various government ministries, several self-styled guardians of tradition ...

This article examines aid practice, that is, the public-private contractual networks that link donor governments, UN agencies, military establishments, NGOs, private companies and others, as a relation of global liberal governance. In order to fulfil this function, such networks embody what could be called the 'securitisation' of international assistance. Based ...

This paper describes a model HIV prevention programme for relief agencies working in extremely impoverished or socially disrupted areas. A detailed behavioural inventory is proposed to assess: sexual behaviours, traditional cutting procedures, midwifery practices, the availability of injectables and injection equipment in local markets, the use of intoxicants, sex workers, ...

Infectious syphilis disproportionately affects African Americans living in poverty in metropolitan areas in the southeastern United States. In this population, where syphilis persists, the rates of HIV and AIDS are also persistently high. In an effort to facilitate the design of more effective prevention programs, the present investigation employed focus ...

Between 10 percent and 15 percent of all AIDS cases throughout the United States have been reported in people ages 50 and over. However, older adults often have been overlooked in research on HIV/AIDS. The study discussed in this article examined 571 individuals ages 30 to 81 who had been ...

AIDS constitutes a major public health problem in developed and developing countries. The experience at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex (O.A.U.T.H.C.), Ile-Ife, Nigeria has shown that HIV/AIDS is not uncommon. Screening of pregnant women with symptoms and signs suggestive of HIV/AIDS revealed 5 cases in three years (1996-1998). Four ...

The pandemic of HIV/AIDS continues to pose a serious threat to the population of sub-Saharan Africa, despite ongoing public health efforts to control the spread of infection. Given the important role of oral tradition in indigenous settings throughout rural Africa, we are beginning an innovative approach to HIV/AIDS prevention based ...

There has been an increasing understanding of the social, economic, cultural and political factors that have shaped the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It has been widely recognized that in order to have effective prevention programmes for HIV/AIDS, the broader determinants of health must be addressed. Concurrently, a deeper understanding of personal and ...

The aim of the study is to obtain the views and opinions of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAS), community leaders and other stake holders (care providers and AIDS orphans), so as to assess the role of Non-Governmental Organisations in the control of HIV infection with the purpose of making appropriate ...

In 1998, community leaders prompted members of the Black and Hispanic Congressional Caucuses to urge President Clinton to declare HIV/AIDS a crisis in the African American and Latino communities; their advocacy resulted in the formation of the Minority AIDS Initiative. As part of this initiative, the Center for Substance Abuse ...

The objective of this study was to examine the quality-of-life concerns of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals and to assess their perceptions of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and the need for safer sex, in light of treatment advances. Respondents were recruited from seven AIDS service organizations in New York ...

A major repercussion of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is the challenge of caring for the children who have been dramatically affected by watching their parents fall sick, become incapacitated, lose their jobs, become stigmatized, and die. The biopsychosocial impact on these children is compelling. The Eaglets Child Welfare Project is working ...

The potential for spread of HIV in Nepal is considered large because of the presence of extensive commercial sex workers, high rate of sexually transmitted disease, low condom use and many pockets of intravenous drug users. To prevent this disease from producing any public health problem in Nepal, strategies have ...

Today the medical literature is dominated by discussions on issues related to HIV/AIDS. This is not surprising considering the fact that in the history of humankind, the HIV/AIDS scenario has posed one of the greatest challenges. The reality of the physical, socioeconomic and psychological problems associated with the AIDS epidemic ...

The federal government's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States has improved greatly over the past 20 years although there are still many challenges. In the earliest years, it was often hard enough simply to have key policymakers utter the word "AIDS" and acknowledge that there was a ...

Using the 20-year mark in the history of AIDS as a catalyst, the United Nations and other international organizations have called upon the world's wealthier nations to increase attention, support, and funding to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment efforts. This call to action included a series of meetings with business and ...

Pervasive stigma has surrounded HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the pandemic. In Southeast Asia, as elsewhere, it has been accompanied by discrimination, affecting transmission patterns and access to care and support. Beginning with definitions of stigma and discrimination as they relate to HIV/AIDS, this paper outlines the contexts of discrimination ...

Community-based organizations that are engaged in HIV/AIDS prevention and support services often rely on volunteers. This article describes the development of a 22-item inventory that measures the motivations of volunteers who deliver HIV prevention education in the African American community. In a statewide survey of volunteers (N = 102), the ...

This study analyses the way in which the Italian press reported Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) over a 22-month period from September 1993 to June 1995, when no national AIDS information campaigns were made in Italy. During this period we collected, read, and categorized every article relating to Human Immunodeficiency Virus ...

A decade has passed since the discovery of HIV in PAKISTAN: In the presence of a susceptible population, 'high-risk' behaviours and potential for further spread, the policies and programmes addressing HIV/AIDS need to be further developed. This paper explores the response to HIV/AIDS in Pakistan and describes the contributions of ...

For 20 years, Hospital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) in Haiti's Artibonite Valley has struggled with the evolving acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic. Initial efforts to confront the disease met numerous obstacles including denial, stigmatization, powerlessness, and mistrust. Over time, HAS and local community organizations developed a new approach to the ...

A UNAIDS protocol designed to identify discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS was applied in Switzerland, a country where policies against such discrimination had been actively promoted since the beginning of the HIV epidemic. Discrimination, in its strict legal definition, was examined in nine areas of everyday life, and at ...

Knowledge that is generated from research is critical toward understanding the prevention, impact, and treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). During the past several decades, the Black community has been disproportionately affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Therefore, engaging their participation in HIV/AIDS research ...

This exploratory study utilized a focus group methodology to explore tensions and barriers in HIV/AIDS prevention among African-American injection drug users. Participants discussed HIV infection risks, national/community HIV prevention effectiveness, prevention barriers, ideas on barrier removal, and the tensions which exist between users and the larger African-American community. Recognizing the ...

Discussions of the AIDS epidemic rarely consider the impact on older people except as infected persons. Virtually no systematic quantitative assessments exist of the involvement of parents or other older generation relatives in the living and caretaking arrangements of persons with AIDS in either the West or the developing world. ...