CDC: A Time to Re-Energize Prevention
This is a weekly report by the CDC for the week of July 1, 2001, 20 years after the AIDS outbreak. In this report, the CDC reflects on the progress of HIV prevention and treatment and uses it to develop a new method to reduce the spread of HIV. The CDC calls for the collaboration between health officials and communities that have been affected by HIV and AIDS. In this report, the CDC talks about past effective prevention methods they used that declined U.S. infection rates such as public information campaigns and community based programs. According to Fairchild, “Although they would ultimately face deep criticism, emotionally laden, fear-based appeals were one of the hallmarks of the early global AIDS campaign. The most vivid was, perhaps, Australia’s Grim Reaper campaign depicting Death—a shrouded, skeletal figure—using a bowling ball to mow down men, women, and children”. Now, the CDC calls for a three part plan to reduce annual infections by half within five years. The three part plans consists of efforts to help infected people know about their HIV status, help the infected learn how to live with their status and how to be safe, and reach out to communities who are HIV negative and establish prevention programs there. According to the CDC, “HIV prevention programs contribute to healthier behaviors and reduce the number of new HIV infections in the United States.” Their belief in 2001 was that prevention on every level (global, nationally, community, and personal) was the way to reduce the number of new people becoming infected with HIV.
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. No. 21 ed., vol. 50, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2001, pp. 429–456.
Fairchild, Amy Lauren, et al. “The Two Faces of Fear: A History of Hard-Hitting Public Health Campaigns Against Tobacco and AIDS.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 108, no. 9, Sept. 2018, pp. 1180–1186. EBSCOhost, proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=131143866&site=eds-live.