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- Title
Organizing the fight against AIDS.
- Authors
Pollak, Michael
- Abstract
The rapid diffusion of HIV infection in a few marginalized groups creates specific problems for public policies. Governments and administrations had difficulties in conceiving policies which took into account the two marginalized groups, male homosexuals and bisexuals, and intravenous drug users, representing a large majority of AIDS cases. In many countries, public authorities reacted by inactivity, a wait-and-see attitude. They were literally paralysed. In the absence of public action, voluntary associations have formed rapidly. They are the basis of an unprecedented mobilization in the health field. The formulation of national strategies to manage AIDS has everywhere been cautious and slow. At the regional and municipal level, activities developed in high incidence areas under the pressure of the epidemiological situation. The factors that shaped policies are very diverse. Among these factors, a major one is the formation of community-based pressure groups and self-help organizations. Their size and power depends on the very definition of the "community" they represent, in terms of how concerned it is about the disease. In this respect, "gays" have occupied a relatively privileged position.
- Subjects
POLITICAL planning; AIDS prevention; PUBLIC health; EPIDEMIOLOGY; SOCIOLOGY; PUBLIC administration
- Publication
Current Sociology, 1992, Vol 40, Issue 3, p36
- ISSN
0011-3921
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/001139292040003008