Strategic Roles for Health Communication in Combination HIV Prevention and Care Programs

Abstract

This special issue of JAIDS: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes is devoted to health communication and its role in and impact on HIV prevention and care. The authors in this special issue have tackled a wide swath of topics, seeking to introduce a wider biomedical audience to core health communication principles, strategies, and evidence of effectiveness. Better awareness of health communication strategies and concepts can enable the broader biomedical community to partner with health communication experts in reducing the risk of HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and tuberculosis and maximize linkage and adherence to care. Interventions can be strengthened when biomedical and health communication approaches are combined in strategic and evidence-based ways. Several of the articles in this special issue present the current evidence for health communication's impact. These articles show how far we have come and yet how much further we have to go to document impact convincingly. Examples of the biomedical approaches to HIV control include treatment as prevention, voluntary medical male circumcision, preexposure prophylaxis, sterile needle exchange, opiate substitution therapy, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission. None will succeed without behavior change, which can be facilitated by effective health communication.

Avaliação do acompanhamento e desfecho de casos de tuberculose em município do sul do Brasil

“…Therapeutic success, abandonment and even multidrug resistance rely heavily on information provided by the team during consultations (11) . Thus, the preparation of professionals in health communication strategies can maximize treatment adherence (12) . However, the information to be provided to the TB patient and his family is numerous, and requires continued meetings to facilitate the absorption of information and to give room for asking questions, with monthly meeting being insuffi cient, even if put to good use.…”

Expanded antiretroviral treatment, sexual networks, and condom use: Treatment as prevention unlikely to succeed without partner reduction among men who have sex with men in China

“…Internet hook-up sites facilitate finding new male sexual partners, as with men’s use of Chinese social media (e.g., QQ, WeChat, and Grinder) [75]. At the same time, social media can be used to deliver HIV prevention interventions [76–79] anchored on promoting safer sex through stable sexual partnerships and condom use. This combination prevention research agenda towards social marketing, incentive-based behavior change, and community engagement to both reduce high risk behavior and to engage antiretroviral therapy or prophylaxis is every bit as urgent as the more unitary biomedical/pharmacological approaches [15,23,57,80–84].…”

Zugangsschwellen zu HIV-Test-Angeboten – Eine systematische Literaturanalyse

“…B. bei Vorliegen von Indikatorerkrankungen. [7] Homosexuelle und transidente Jugendliche in den USA: [10] Ethnische Minderheiten und Migranten: [12,16,28,30,37] Schwule Männer in Australien: [29] Schwule Männer in den USA: [39,65] Intravenöse Drogengebraucher: [79] terkulturelle Kompetenz benötigt [19,40,52,53]. Diese beinhaltet den Umgang mit unterschiedlichen Männlichkeitsnormen ("Männer dürfen nicht krank sein") [39,54], anderem Verständnis von Blut ("Blut als Kraftquelle") [46] und mit Mythen über HIV [46].…”