Becker: Health Education Quarterly - AIDS Educ-the Pubhealth Cha (Hequ AIDS Issue) (Pr Only) : The Public Health Challenge

We are now several years into the AIDS epidemic, and virtually all indications are that this tragic disease will be with us for some years to come.

From the beginning and up to the present, the most important public health strategy for containing the spread of the disease has been education.

While medical researchers aggressively pursue an effective vaccine and treatment for AIDS, the task of trying to 'hold the line' or at least minimize the loss in human lives that will be suffered by society has fallen to health educators.

Education in the case of AIDS must mean more than transmitting information about the practices that place one at risk of becoming infected or infecting others.

It must also stem the spread of irrational fears, combat prejudice and the tendency to advocate more restrictive public health measures that are justified by available evidence.