HIV PREVENTION PROGRAMMES OVERVIEW

HIV prevention programmes are interventions that aim to halt the transmission of HIV. They are implemented to either protect an individual and their community, or are rolled out as public health policies.

KEY POINTS:

• HIV prevention programmes are interventions that aim to halt the transmission of HIV.
• HIV prevention programmes usually focus on preventing the transmission of HIV through a complementary combination of behavioural, biomedical and structural strategies.
• Despite the progress made by prevention programmes across the globe, the decline in new HIV infections among adults has slowed in the past decade, which indicates the need for increased funding and scale up of services.
• For maximum impact, HIV prevention programmes need to be targeted at high prevalence regions or ‘hot spots’, and also meet the needs of high-risk groups.