World AIDS Day reminds us to refocus on communities

When discussing the role of communities in the HIV response, this includes many different groups of people: communities of people living with HIV, including key populations such as young women and girls, gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who use drugs, sex workers, prisoners and tr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Indian journal of medical research (New Delhi, India : 1994) India : 1994), 2019-12, Vol.150 (6), p.518-520
Main Authors: Yola, Ntando, Mpongo, Cynthia, Latief, Iman, Bekker, Linda-Gail
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
AIDS
AIDS (Disease)
Civil society
False information
Funding
Health
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus
Infections
Lifesaving
Mbeki, Thabo
Medical tests
Political activism
Prevention
Public health
Researchers
Setting (Literature)
Time
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Summary:When discussing the role of communities in the HIV response, this includes many different groups of people: communities of people living with HIV, including key populations such as young women and girls, gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who use drugs, sex workers, prisoners and transgender people, as well as community mobilization teams including peer educators, counsellors, community health workers, service providers, activists and civil society organizations[4]. In 2000, President Thabo Mbeki expressed criticism of the public consensus that HIV causes AIDS and continued to express sympathy for AIDS denialists, causing a significant impact on public health policy and resulting in policies that denied those living with HIV access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment[7]. Working in communities with low formal education and literacy rates, community outreach teams spend a lot of time and resources breaking down the science of research, dispelling myths and misinformation that continues to thrive. Since the start of the response to HIV in South Africa, and in the many gains achieved since then, community-driven solutions have proven the most effective at countering this misinformation, by keeping the individuals and communities who are at greatest risk at the centre of HIV/AIDS research discourse[8].
ISSN:0971-5916
DOI:10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_2662_19