AIDS prevention in Zimbabwe

tropical nymphaea

According to the United Nations, about 33.3 million people worldwide are infected with HIV and the majority of those live in sub-Saharan Africa. The virus can be controlled with cocktails of drugs, but there is no cure and nearly 30 million people have died of HIV-related causes since the disease first emerged in the 1980s. The good news is however that the disease has taken a dramatic downturn in Zimbabwe, a country where its incidence was among the highest in the world. In fact, people infected with HIV were 29% in 1997 but ten years later, in 2007, they were 16%. How was it possible? The answer is: primary prevention. Zimbabweans have primarily been motivated to change their sexual behavior because of increased awareness about AIDS deaths which heightened their fears of catching the human immunodeficiency virus that causes it. The behavioral changes associated with HIV reduction consisted mainly in reductions in extramarital, commercial, and casual sexual relations, and associated reductions in partner concurrency. These changes were probably aided by prevention programs utilizing both mass media and church-based, workplace-based, and other interpersonal communication activities. The main lesson emerging from these data which were published in the PloS medical journal online is that, unless prevention efforts can be made more effective, there will ultimately be no victory in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This lesson is for all countries worldwide.