Facts on HIV Prevention
Studies show that various HIV-prevention techniques help people change their behavior. Such techniques need to be focused and sustained. They include:
- teaching people the skills needed to negotiate difficult social situations;
- reinforcing techniques over time to enhance long-term behavior change; and
- promoting safer practices by ensuring access to condoms and sterile needles.
And HIV-prevention interventions can change behaviors in a broad range of populations, including injection drug users (in treatment), gay and bisexual men at risk and homeless youth. Simple informational materials and programs are not enough.
To be effective, prevention programs must:
- reach people in a variety of settings;
- be culturally specific;
- be intensive and long-term; and
- provide populations at risk with the information, support and skills to change high-risk behavior.
Community Involvement Leads to Better Prevention
HIV-prevention community planning is a collaborative process that includes state and local health departments, social service agencies, non-governmental agencies, representatives impacted or affected by HIV and representatives of communities at risk for HIV infection. These groups work in partnership to plan and prioritize HIV-prevention programs that are responsive to community-identified needs within specific target populations.
Prevention Is Cost Effective
Preventing HIV also reduces expensive health care and other economic costs. The annual medical care cost for someone with early stage HIV who takes highly active antiretroviral therapy is more than $15,000 per year. The cost to care for someone with late-stage AIDS is estimated at more than $30,000 per year. People with AIDS who stop working can no longer generate income or pay taxes, so they often are forced to draw upon entitlement programs.
Meanwhile, the virus continues to move into communities of color, women and youth. Potential cuts in HIV-prevention programs may reduce federal spending in the short term, but will only lead to increased costs in the future.
Administration Reform
Administrative and legislative efforts to reform HIV prevention must be dedicated to strengthening HIV-prevention efforts, not reducing funding. Communities at risk for HIV infection have long advocated for significant reforms in federally funded HIV-prevention programs and for the need to design and implement prevention in partnership with communities at risk.
Monitoring and Evaluation
The federal government, in partnership with state and local health departments, and representatives of communities at risk for HIV infection should be responsible for developing, implementing and evaluating a national prevention strategy. Infectious diseases, such as HIV, are not confined to state borders. Decisions about whether to undertake HIV-prevention activities must not be left solely to state health officials.
While HIV-prevention community planning ensures broader participation at the local level, it does not diminish the need for federal oversight. The federal government must monitor the spending of federal funds and ensure that the federally funded prevention programs undertake scientifically sound HIV-prevention activities. Administrative changes or consolidation of programs must not reduce current funding for HIV-prevention programs.
Restrictions on Content of Prevention Programs
The federal government must not interfere with local decision-making and priorities by placing restrictions or mandates on the content of HIV-prevention programs. Communities are best equipped to set priorities, develop and implement effective programs. Programs must not be restricted from using federal, state or local funds for prevention activities that they deem appropriate and consistent with public health.
