HIV Prevention Education

The AIDS pandemic has grown to a global phenomenon over the past three decades. The overwhelming majority of people with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) live in the developing world. In 2008, approximately 334 million people globally were estimated to be living with HIV. As many as 95 per cent of those living with HIV do not know that they carry the virus, which contributes to its rapid spread. Every day, more than 15,000 people are infected with HIV. In 2008 alone, 2 million died in the AIDS epidemic. These results have been devastating in all affected communities. Notably, chronic emergency and disaster-prone countries and regions have been the most directly affected.

This book seeks to teach learners how to avoid becoming infected with HIV, to help learners recognize symptoms and to encourage those infected to seek appropriate medical care and counselling, to teach learners how best to help people living with HIV within their own families and communities.