Behavior Changes Drove Down HIV in Zimbabwe

[catharina]

medpagetoday.com/HIVAIDS/HIVAIDS/24782

"By Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today
Published: February 09, 2011
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and
Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner Earn CME/CE credit
for reading medical news

"Changes in behavior – mainly cutting down extramarital, casual, and commercial sex – drove a marked reduction in the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe, researchers reported.

The prevalence rate in the troubled East African nation peaked in the late 1990s and has been falling since then, according to Daniel Halperin, PhD, of Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues.

An analysis of the factors that might have been involved in the change suggests that fear of the infection drove men and women to change their sexual behavior and attitudes, the researchers reported online in PLoS Medicine.

The evidence suggests that “in Zimbabwe, as elsewhere, partner reduction appears to have played a crucial role in reversing the HIV epidemic,” they argued. …"

Thank the Lord -
and well, dohhhhh.

 

[Dale_M]

This is welcome news, and that behavior change may be driving the lower rates shouldn’t surprise anyone. However, the study looks at prevalence of HIV/AIDS rather than rates of transmission. Given the economic collapse of Zimbabwe during this time period, with health care and food hard to come by, it may be the the prevalence is lower because many persons who were infected simply died.

I think that many of the other factors mentioned in the article are likely to be important, as well. But the article doesn’t really quantify the any impact of behavior change on transmission. Instead, it notes the lower prevalence and then looks for reasons to explain the lower prevalence. I do wonder if they overlooked mortality among those who were already infected.

 

[Darryl1958]

The pope is being proved right in his assessment.