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Behavioural changes needed to cut HIV rates

06/08/2008

A change in people's behaviour is needed if efforts to prevent HIV are to have any chance of success, experts claimed today.

In a special series on HIV in the Lancet journal, they argue that more responsible and less promiscuous sexual habits are needed to reduce HIV rates.

This includes a delay in the first time of intercourse, a decrease in the number of sexual partners and in the number of sexual acts without protection.

Professors Thomas Coates (University of California, Los Angeles), Linda Richter (Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa) and Carlos Caceres (Cayetano Heredia University, Peru) argue that there also needs to be effective HIV counselling and testing; access to treatment for those with HIV; access to male circumcision; and a decrease in the sharing of needles and substance misuse.

Their comments come as experts gather at the 17th International Aids Conference in Mexico City.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said HIV impedes economic development and that discrimination against people living with the virus remains widespread.

"The radical behavioural change that is needed to reduce HIV transmission requires radical commitment," the study's authors conclude.

"Prevention strategies will never work if they are not implemented completely, with appropriate resources and benchmarks, and with a view toward sustainability. The fundamentals of HIV prevention need to be agreed upon, funded, implemented, measured, and achieved. That, presently, is not the case."