[The prevention of AIDS among African youths: cultural constraints]

The information, education and communication which are the basis of all preventive counseling are first and foremost cultural activities specific to each society. They influence the networks and channels which permit contact with groups and individuals, as well as the content of messages developed to inform them and to make them acquire new attitudes and adopt new behavioural patterns. These activities also influence the perception of what constitutes risk. In developing tactical projects with the goal of preventing HIV infection, it is essential: to understand adolescent culture, which creates for its members a separate identity with its own dynamic and distinct values; to influence adolescent culture through an appreciation of the norms, languages, values, it; to work with the young who can and often do serve as effective relays of adult information within the community; to begin prevention at a very early age, when behavioural patterns have not yet solidified, for it is far easier to change behaviour when it has just been learned; to focus strategies, that is, to identify within the community the unifying features and shared values and to use them to transmit positive messages in the hope of changing group norms in the process.