Improving community support for HIV and AIDS prevention through national partnerships

If the transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is to be prevented, the environment in which people live should predispose them to engage in and sustain safe behaviors. Too often in public health, the range of organizations that make up that environment are overlooked, and prevention strategies are limited to familiar medical and public health institutions. Improvement in public health does not occur in isolation, apart from the other institutions of society--and so it is with the HIV-AIDS epidemic. Education; business and labor; religion; government; voluntary, civic, and social organizations; and the media can all serve as facilitators or as barriers to creating the environment--at the national, regional, State, or local level--that will prevent and control the spread of HIV infection and AIDS and support the needs of those already infected. Collectively, they become a comprehensive HIV prevention network with access to and influence on the total public. One of the most significant benefits of this network is the multiplier effect on the limited resources of public health. Therefore, as part of its HIV and AIDS prevention strategy, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has developed national partnerships to involve the leadership of business, labor and industry, religious institutions and organizations, and voluntary organizations in HIV and AIDS prevention and service. Some of these partnerships are federally funded, others are not. The national partnership program described in this paper has produced increased resources for HIV education and services and has demonstrated the synergistic benefits resulting from public and private cooperation in addressing the HIV epidemic.