ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the social constructions of sexual health. The global understanding of the transmission of virus is that it is largely caused by sexual behaviours worldwide necessitating a global definition of sexual health as a basis for prevention and care. In the context of Human Immunodeficiency Virus & Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, physically identical sexual acts may have different social and personal meanings depending on how they are defined and understood in their different cultures and historical periods. While sex is biologically determined, sexual behaviour is under social control. Social construction of sexual health is related to the values and norms about sexuality and health that come from a variety of sources including social and religious viewpoints, science, medicine, and individual experience. Unsafe sex has been ascribed as the driving force for the spread of the epidemic amongst women and men of reproductive age.
