[Campaign strategy against AIDS in Africa: Congolese procedures and experience]

Compared with US and European countries, AIDS prevention in Africa has two specificities: there are no peculiar risk groups and the HIV is transmitted mainly through heterosexual relations. In Congo, the prevention strategy aims at the followings: information and in-service training for health workers; medical and psychological care for contaminated persons; and information to the general public. As AIDS spreads much more in urban areas (3.8%) than in rural areas (less than 1%), the first decision has been to organise a systematic screening of blood donors in Brazzaville, together with a face-to-face counselling for everyone and particularly to HIV positives. The public information is based on public sessions with half-an-hour information and a two-hour discussion. As condoms are not yet psychologically and economically accessible to the African people, the prevention campaigns have to give a panel of possible solutions, including abstinence, decrease in the number of partners, fidelity,.... The approaches are multimedia including theater, songs, posters, TV and radio.