Primary prevention lessons learned from those with HIV in Chennai, India.

Background: As each HIV-infected individual represents a breakdown of HIV primary prevention measures, formative data from representative individuals living with HIV can help shape future primary prevention interventions. Little is known about sexual behaviours and other transmission risk factors of high-risk group members who are already HIV-infected in Chennai, India.

Methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 27 HIV-infected individuals representing each high-risk group in Chennai (five men who have sex with men (MSM), five female commercial sex workers (CSW), four truckers and other men who travel for business, four injecting drug users (IDU), five married male clients of CSW, and four wives of CSW clients, MSM, truckers, and IDU).

Keep talking about it: HIV/AIDS-related communication and prior HIV testing in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Thailand.

Informal, interpersonal communication within a community about HIV and AIDS, or lack of such communication, may influence community members' uptake of voluntary counseling and testing. Drawing from Noelle-Neumann's spiral of silence theory, this study examined the association between communication about HIV/AIDS and prior HIV testing in communities in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Thailand. Participants (N = 14,818) in 48 communities across five sites throughout the four countries completed a behavioral survey assessing communication, prior voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) uptake, social norms, stigma, and sexual risk.

Latinos and HIV/AIDS: examining factors related to disparity and identifying opportunities for psychosocial intervention research.

Latinos maintain an AIDS case rate more than 3 times higher than whites, a greater rate of progression to AIDS, and a higher rate of HIV/AIDS-related deaths. Three broad areas are reviewed related to these disparities: (1) relevant demographic, socioeconomic, and socio-cultural factors among Latinos; (2) drug abuse and mental health problems in Latinos relevant to HIV/AIDS outcomes; and (3) opportunities for psychosocial intervention. Latinos living with HIV are a rapidly growing group, are more severely impacted by HIV than whites, and confront unique challenges in coping with HIV/AIDS.

Predictors of condom use among young adults in South Africa: the Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit National Youth Survey.

Objectives: We examined correlates of condom use among a national random probability sample of sexually experienced young adults aged 15 to 24 years (n = 7686) in South Africa.

Methods: Using data from the Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit National Youth Survey, we conducted gender-stratified bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses to determine predictors of whether respondents had used a condom during their most recent sexual intercourse.

Results: Condom use at sexual debut and talking with one's first sexual partner about condoms were the most significant predictors of condom use at most recent intercourse.