Implementing Effective HIV Prevention Programs

Prevention remains one of the highest priorities of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). CDC supports a multi-faceted prevention approach that uses epidemiologic evidence to determine the most effective combination of evidence-based interventions that include a mix of behavioral, biomedical, and structural interventions that are integrated into the health system to build synergies between prevention, care, and treatment programs.

CDC Areas of Strategic Focus

CDC engages with and provides technical support to partner countries to implement and scale-up multiple HIV prevention approaches.

• HIV Testing and Counseling (HTC) ─ CDC assists in identifying HIV infected persons and offering risk reduction counseling and linkage to care and treatment by developing and implementing HIV counseling and testing policies, strategies, and programs, including scaling-up these programs to a national level.
• Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) ─ CDC provides leadership and technical assistance for PMTCT research and development of site-based and national programs including: policy and guidelines, monitoring systems, training curricula, early infant testing methodologies, program models, and evaluation.
• Medical Male Circumcision ─ Evidence has shown that medical circumcision reduces a man’s risk of acquiring HIV through heterosexual intercourse. CDC supports male circumcision scale-up activities via facility and community assessments, clinical trainings, development of communication, and counseling approaches, establishment of quality assurance (QA) and medical ethical standards, service provision, and contributes to the development of international normative guidelines.
• Medical Transmission ─ CDC provides technical support to develop national strategies, policies, and practices to reduce HIV transmission related to unsafe blood and medical practices.
• Sexual Transmission in Special Populations ─ Develop comprehensive, evidence-based programs and training curricula to facilitate the implementation of HIV prevention programs and to conduct research to strengthen prevention strategies for special populations including youth, HIV infected persons and their families, serodiscordant couples, and most-at-risk populations (MARPs).

CDC also engages in other cross-cutting activities that support prevention of HIV infection, including addressing gender issues, reducing alcohol-related risk behaviors, and supporting community-based HIV prevention approaches based on the combination prevention strategy.