Sexual transmission of AIDS

Someone can eliminate or reduce their risk of becoming infected with HIV during sex by choosing to:

• Abstain from sex or delay first sex
• Be faithful to one partner or have fewer partners
• Condomise, which means using male or female condoms consistently and correctly

There are a number of effective ways to encourage people to adopt safer sexual behaviour, including media campaigns, social marketing, peer education and small group counselling. These activities should be carefully tailored to the needs and circumstances of the people they intend to help. Specific programmes should target key groups such as young people, women, men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and sex workers.^{5 6 7}

Comprehensive sex education for young people is an essential part of HIV prevention. This should include training in life skills such as negotiating healthy sexual relationships, as well as accurate and explicit information about how to practise safer sex. Studies have shown that this kind of comprehensive sex education is more effective at preventing sexually transmitted infections than education that focuses solely on teaching abstinence until marriage.^{8 9}