Achieving an HIV-Free Generation: Recommendations for a New American HIV Strategy

Noting that when the United States (US) partners with a country to help them fight HIV and AIDS in their own countries through the US Emergency Plan, the US requires that country to produce a comprehensive national strategy document, laying out an integrated treatment and prevention plan and that the US government does not require states and jurisdictions receiving federal money to develop a similar integrated treatment and prevention plan, the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) developed this document. It includes a series of recommendations to help develop a new United States HIV strategy. The document is separated into three parts. The first two sections focus domestically, on the Prevention of the continued transmission of this disease and the Treatment and Care of those already infected. The third section is devoted to The Emergency Plan and the epidemic in the developing world.

A number of the recommendations put forth by PACHA in this document are focused on communication (excerpts from the document follow):

Prevention

• Recommendation 12: The federal government needs a comprehensive, multi-media HIV Prevention campaign...
• Recommendation 13: A particular emphasis in any prevention effort is needed for the African American, Hispanic and
  minority communities. This will entail getting faith-based leaders, entertainers, movie and television stars and business leaders engaged in raising awareness, promoting testing, and reinforcing risk avoidance behaviors...
• Recommendation 14: In all messages to the public, we need to be honest, focusing on the realities of HIV...
• Recommendation 15: An HIV Prevention campaign must be appropriate to age, culture and risk behavior...
• Recommendation 16: People of good will working to control the spread of HIV must be respected...Every American
  must be confronted with messages portraying the reality of HIV in America and the risk behaviors that lead
  to transmission...
• Recommendation 20: Schools and parents must be challenged to tackle discussions of HIV prevention with youth...We cannot deceive our youth nor hide the truth from them. We must deliver messages they can Relate to, messages that are Relevant to their experience and Real - honest information. We cannot just preach to them, rather we must engage in a dialogue, learning how best to enlist young people in prevention efforts and encourage them to make healthy choices...
• Recommendation 21: Young people should be educated about the importance of delaying sexual debut and reducing the
  number of life-time partners...
• Recommendation 22: HIV education should be a part of an overall program to reduce all risky behaviors...

Treatment

• Recommendation 11: The federal government needs a comprehensive, invigorated communication campaign of our
  domestic HIV/AIDS policies. A public service awareness campaign to promote HIV prevention, if structured properly, will also serve to increase HIV testing and reduce the stigma associated with this disease, and therefore move more HIV-positive Americans into treatment sooner...