Prevention of HIV in young people in Africa

doi:10.1136/bmj.a743

Published 7 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a743
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a743

Editorials

Prevention of HIV in young people in Africa

Interventions need to be sustained and extend beyond schoolsand into the community

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

Despite the importance of preventing HIV infection in youngpeople in countries where it is highly endemic, few rigorouslyconducted studies have measured the effects of preventive interventions.¹The linked randomised trial by Jewkes and colleagues (doi: 10.1136/bmj.a506)of the Stepping Stones intervention is therefore an importantaddition.² The trial randomly allocated 70 villages in the EasternCape province of South Africa to the intervention arm or controlarm. In each village, 20 male and 20 female volunteers tookpart in Stepping Stones, a 50 hour programme to improve sexualhealth using participatory learning approaches, or a three hourcontrol programme. After two years of follow-up, the incidenceof HIV (the primary outcome) was not significantly affected,but infection with herpes simplex type 2 virus (HSV-2) was significantly(33%) reduced. In young men, reported risk behaviours, perpetrationof intimate partner violence, and problem drinking were alsosignificantly reduced, but . . . [Full text of this article]

Richard Hayes, professor of epidemiology and international health

¹ London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT

richard.hayes@lshtm.ac.uk

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Impact of Stepping Stones on incidence of HIV and HSV-2 and sexual behaviour in rural South Africa: cluster randomised controlled trial: Rachel Jewkes, M Nduna, J Levin, N Jama, K Dunkle, A Puren, and N Duvvury
BMJ 2008 337: a506. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]