Monthly Themes

Prevention

• Today, the U.S. supports the most diverse portfolio of HIV/AIDS prevention strategies of any international partner:  the ABC strategy to prevent sexual transmission, the expansion of programs that focus on mother-to-child transmission, on blood safety and safe medical injections, on intravenous drug users, on HIV-discordant couples, on women, on men, and on alcohol abuse, among other key issues.
• ABC (Abstain, Be faithful, correct and consistent use of Condoms) is good public health, based on respect for local culture - it is an African solution, developed in Africa, not in the U.S.  It provides comprehensive information so people can decide how to protect themselves. 
• In the early 1990s, Uganda became the world's leading example of a country with an HIV/AIDS epidemic, generalized throughout the population rather than concentrated in subgroups, in which many people changed their sexual behavior to protect themselves, so that infection rates dropped.
• However, new evidence shows that in additional nations in Africa and the Caribbean, people have changed their behavior to avoid HIV, causing infection rates to drop.
• Dr. Peter Piot, the highly respected head of UNAIDS, said that in Kenya and Zimbabwe, "[T]he declines in HIV rates have been due to changes in behaviour, including increased use of condoms, people delaying the first time they have sexual intercourse, and people having fewer sexual partners." Put another way, A, B, and C behavior change all occurred.
• This exciting new data -- drawn from nations where the U.S. supports major prevention efforts -- refutes the critics in the U.S. and Europe who argue that providing people in the developing world with information for behavior change is wasted effort. This evidence is a powerful confirmation of the ABC strategies of our host nations, and of our support for these public health strategies.