Tuesday, March 3, 2009

AIDS Prevention 2.0


Here's an idea I'm hoping will animate most of what we do on this blog: The AIDS Prevention strategies of the past have either failed, or topped out in terms of their ability to control the epidemic. This is especially true in sub-Saharan Africa. If condoms (or HIV testing, or "positive attitude" posters) were going to reverse the tide, it would already have happened in many places. If treatment was going to do it, new HIV infections would be going down quickly in Botswana, where ARVs are approaching universal levels. Sadly this hasn't happened. We need new strategies, or to better deploy old ones.
I have ideas on what might work. But I'd like to hear from the blogosphere: Out of the tools not yet deployed, or under-deployed, what should get attention now?
There's a moral obligation, I think, to have an intellectually rigorous answer to this question. That's what AIDS Prevention 2.0 should be about. As long as the average South African teenager has a 50 percent chance of catching HIV in his/her lifetime, none of us can walk away feeling like we've made enough of a difference.
So, ideas?
Hit the "comments" button at the bottom of this post to join the conversation.

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