Pilot Project: Preventing Further AIDS Spread Among Women, General Heterosexual Population

Abstract

BY 1991, according to some projections, women will account for 12% of cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Public health experts are hoping to intervene now to prevent further spread of AIDS among women and into the heterosexual population in general. Three cities are embarking on an innovative pilot education and prevention program to reach "a diverse and scattered group, many of whom do not know they are at increased risk," said Sheila Namir, PhD, at the Boston meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Namir is assistant professor at the California College of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles. The Women and AIDS Risk Network (WARN), which Namir heads, is putting the finishing touches on a program that will begin in Boston, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. The program will target sexual partners of intravenous drug users and users themselves, prostitutes, prisoners, adolescent runaways, and the homeless. It is being funded