Interventions In Resource-poor Settings Research Articles

HIV/AIDS burden in rural Africa: the people's struggle and response of the international community

HIV/AIDS burden in rural Africa: the people's struggle and response of the international community

AIDS, empire, and public health behaviorism.

Much of the current health approach to designing HIV/AIDS interventions in resource-poor settings involves behavior-change initiatives, particularly those adopting education-based and "culturally competent" frameworks for the reduction of HIV-associated "risk behaviors." This article reviews the evidence and social assumptions behind this approach to preventing HIV transmission, and argues that these approaches are often inadequate or misguided, particularly in their conflation of the concept of "culture" with social circumstances. By analyzing the socioeconomic circumstances that constrain individual agency, and by combining data from prevention literature with analyses of international trade agreements and the controversies over antiretroviral drug distribution, the author argues that the movement of capital and the maintenance of inequality are central to the problems associated with behavior-change initiatives and must be addressed through new paradigms in order to respond appropriately to the global AIDS pandemic. Hardt and Negri's paradigm of "Empire"--that is, examining the system through which social inequalities are maintained not only between countries but also within them--offers prospects for the design of new interventions and targets for public health workers and social movements.

Prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in resource-poor countries: translating research into policy and practice.

Each year, an estimated 590,000 infants acquire human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV) infection from their mothers, mostly in developing countries that are unable to implement interventions now standard in the industrialized world. In resource-poor settings, the HIV pandemic has eroded hard-won gains in infant and child survival. Recent clinical trial results from international settings suggest that short-course antiretroviral regimens could significantly reduce perinatal HIV transmission worldwide if research findings could be translated into practice. This article reviews current knowledge of mother-to-child HIV transmission in developing countries, summarizes key findings from the trials, outlines future research requirements, and describes public health challenges of implementing perinatal HIV prevention interventions in resource-poor settings. Public health efforts must also emphasize primary prevention strategies to reduce incident HIV infections among adolescents and women of childbearing age. Successful implementation of available perinatal HIV interventions could substantially improve global child survival.