About the Procedural Guidance
From the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) has worked with its partners to help stop the spread of
HIV. Staff members have worked tirelessly on national, state, and local
levels and have had much success. Today, HIV treatments can help improve the
lives of those with the disease, and more information is available on how to
help prevent the spread of HIV.
The number of new HIV diagnoses went down until the 1990s. Since then,
the number has stayed at about 40,000 each year. Data from 33 states from
2001 through 2004 show that overall, except among men who have sex with men,
the number of new HIV diagnoses is remaining stable. However, studies show
that some people are putting themselves and others at risk by not taking
steps to reduce their risk of getting HIV. In 2000 and 2001, the number of
cases of syphilis went up, after 10 years of fewer cases.
In April 2003, CDC launched Advancing HIV Prevention: New Strategies for
a Changing Epidemic (AHP). AHP supports HIV prevention work being done now,
but also brings new tools (such as rapid HIV testing) and methods to meet
the needs of persons living with HIV. The goals of AHP are to increase the
number of persons living with HIV who know that they are infected and to
give them and persons at high risk for HIV infection the best tools we have
for staying healthy and reducing the chance of giving HIV to others or
getting the disease.
AHP is designed to
- increase early diagnosis
- improve referral to prevention services, medical care, and treatment
- put programs in place to help persons living with HIV
The interventions and strategies in this guide give you information on
programs that can help your community-based organization (CBO) provide
services under the recommendations of AHP.
Why Was the Guidance Written?
The Procedural Guidance (the Guidance) gives information to help CBOs come
up with a plan for delivering interventions.
It will help you design prevention programs and recruitment strategies to
promote counseling and testing, health education and risk reduction, and
other prevention services; counseling, testing, and referral strategies; and
interventions to help prevent the spread of HIV to meet the needs of persons
living with HIV, their partners, and other persons who are not HIV infected
but are at very high risk for HIV.
The Guidance does not give all of the information you would need to design,
deliver, and monitor the interventions. CDC will help you with more training
and technical assistance. Information about the interventions is available
at
Diffusion of Effective Behavioral Interventions (DEBI)
Other information is being developed. If
your CBO cannot handle an intervention by itself, you can ask another CBO to
partner with you.
The Guidance and intervention kits produced by the Replicating Effective
Programs (REP) project and distributed by the Diffusion of Effective
Behavioral Interventions (DEBI) project are the best science we have today
to improve HIV prevention efforts.
REP helps make HIV prevention interventions that have been shown to work
more accessible. They use everyday language and are packaged in a
user-friendly way.
DEBI is CDC's national project that provides training and technical
assistance for health departments and CBO staff who are conducting
evidence-based interventions to prevent HIV, viral hepatitis, and sexually
transmitted diseases.
How is the Guidance Organized?
Each intervention is organized under the following subheadings:
- Description
- Core Elements, Key Characteristics, and Procedures
- Adapting
- Resource Requirements
- Recruitment
- Policies and Standards
- Quality Assurance
- Monitoring and Evaluation
- Key Articles and Resources
- References
Making
The Interventions Work For Your CBO (Adapting)
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