ABSTRACT
It is estimated that by the year 2000 more than 40 million people worldwide will be infected with HIV and currently 16,000 people a day are newly diagnosed. Since the start of the epidemic, almost 12 million people have died (UNAIDS/ WHO, 1997). By far the most common transmission route is sexual contact, and one in every 100 adults in the sexually active age group 15-49 was living with HIV infection in 1997. A vaccine is still a remote hope for the future, and while the new antiretroviral treatments have improved the lives of many to whom they have been available, they do not constitute a cure. Prevention of HIV risk sexual behaviour remains a priority for the foreseeable future. It is well known that the overwhelming majority of HIV-infected people live in the developing world, and major changes in political, socio-economic and organizational policies will be necessary to stem the epidemic. It is therefore critically important that firstly, a global strategy for behavioural science based efforts towards prevention is implemented, and secondly, that the developed countries maintain funding to multilateral initiatives and research in the areas which have been devastated by AIDS and those in which the spread of HIV infection is increasing (Coates et al., 1996).
