Sexual self-defense versus the liaison dangereuse: a strategy for AIDS prevention in the '90s.

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1992. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Sexual self-defense versus the liaison dangereuse: a strategy for AIDS prevention in the '90s.

Am J Prev Med. 1991 May-Jun;7(3):146-9. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE MED/92030277
Nelson EW

Abstract: The present public health strategy to encourage the adoption of safe sex practices to contain the AIDS epidemic in America is incomplete. Current policy is responsive to and appropriate for control of homosexual, but not heterosexual transmission. Powerful societal forces restrict a woman's perception of risk. Consequently, the adoption of safe sex (condom use/insistence on use) by women at risk has not matched safe sex practice by homosexual men. Predictably, pattern two (heterosexual, maternal-fetal) HIV transmission is now rapidly increasing in the United States, particularly among minority women. In anticipation of an intensified pattern two subepidemic, AIDS containment policy should be reoriented to develop the role of women in AIDS prevention. An initiative, termed sexual self-defense (SSD), combines the technology of double-barrier (female irrespective of male) protection with a universal precautions approach to long-term sexual risk management. The initiative addresses both per-contact infectiousness and new partner acquisition, the principal determinants of HIV spread. As a female-targeted strategy, SSD is a timely supplement to existing programs, consistent with the direction of contemporary women's movements in the United States. A street smart approach, SSD bridges ethnic and socioeconomic individual differences. As a unifying philosophy of risk management in health promotion, SSD may avert the threatened fragmentation of AIDS control from existing programs of sexually transmitted disease control and teenage pregnancy prevention.

Keywords: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/*PREVENTION & CONTROL/ TRANSMISSION Contraceptive Devices, Male Female Health Education Health Policy Homosexuality Human Infant, Newborn Male Pregnancy Pregnancy Complications, Infectious Risk Management *Sex Behavior Women/EDUCATION JOURNAL ARTICLE
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M9220816

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