BMJ  2005;331:220-223 (23 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7510.220

Education and debate

Transition and the HIV risk environment

¹ Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour, Imperial College, London W6 8RP UK

Social changes arising from political transition may have contributed to the spread of HIV. Successful prevention strategies require change to the risk environment as well as individual behaviour

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

Transmission of HIV, like that of other behaviourally mediated infections, is influenced by the particular environments in which risk is produced.^{1 2} The spread of HIV is shaped by variations in population behaviour and public health response, which are themselves shaped by differences in social, cultural, economic, and political condition. Prevention strategies aimed at individual behaviour may therefore only partially reduce the risk of transmission.³ We also need strategies to create the local environments and social structural conditions supportive of risk reduction by individuals and communities. Transition is a form of environmental change that can disrupt individual and community level risk reduction, weakening the capacity of public health responses. We suggest the concept of risk environment as a way of analysing the effect of large scale and abrupt social, economic, and political change in eastern Europe and the western Balkans on the spread of HIV and show how it can be . . . [Full text of this article]

What is a risk environment?

Eastern Europe

Western Balkans

Value of risk environment approach

Implications for HIV prevention

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Risk environment in Hungary and need for sound public health response

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bmj.com, 29 Jul 2005 [Full text]

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