ABSTRACT

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syn­ drome (AIDS) have become major public health threats for our time. HIV/AIDS1 is largely a behaviorally borne disease that is communicated via unprotected sexual intercourse, the use of contaminated needles, and other vectors for the exchange of blood and bodily fluids. As such, AIDS has affected members of many groups whose behavior has posed the risk of infection (Winkelstein & Johnson, 1990). In the United States, AIDS has had devastating effects on gay men (Centers for Disease Control, 1990), minorities (Mays, 1989; Quimby & Friedman, 1989), intravenous (IV) drug users and their sexual partners and children (Des Jarlais et al., 1989), and hemophiliacs (Stehr-Green, Holman, Jason, & Evatt, 1988). Evidence is also mounting to suggest that the general heterosexually active public is at increasing risk of AIDS as well (Burke et al., 1990; Gordin, Gibert, Hawley, & Willoughby, 1990; T. E. Miller, Booraem, Flowers, & Iverson, 1990; St. Louis et al., 1990).