Reconsiderung Primary Prevention of HIV: New Steps Forward in the Global Response
Global Forum on MSM and HIV - "Lead by MSMGF in conjunction with global key population networks GATE, IRGT, GNP+, NSWP, ICW, INPUD, and the Platform, this new publication emphasizes the need for a nuanced strategy that combines the efficacy of new biomedical interventions with the guidance and leadership of communities that continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV.
The publication calls upon advocates, healthcare providers, researchers, public health officials, and donors to:
- Stop chasing magic bullet solutions to HIV and instead invest in carefully tailored combination approaches;
- Evolve primary prevention strategies to stitches together bio-medical, behavioral, community, and structural interventions;
- Tailor prevention approaches with consideration to the needs of key populations—rather than blanket approaches which leave many people behind;
- Imbue HIV primary prevention, care, and treatment with the power of community ownership and abandon top-down approaches;
- Remedy funding inequities by investing more substantively, strategically, and differentially in evidence-informed, rights-based, and community-led programs;
- Adopt a more nuanced understanding of gender that recognizes the complexity of identities and sexualities; and,
- Adopt community-endorsed, human rights-based principles of practice.
“Disproportionate rates of depression, anxiety, homelessness, problem substance use, and suicide among LGBTI people can each be traced back to the stigma, discrimination, and violence they face worldwide.” said MSMGF executive director, George Ayala, “Connection to community, safety, and security offset the devastating effects of social exclusion.”