REVIEW PAPER
HIV outbreak storytelling among residents of an area in Iran: what are the overlooked implications for health policy-makers?
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1
Health Services Management Research Center, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
2
Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
3
HIV/STI Surveillance Research Center and WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Future Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
Submission date: 2021-06-14
Final revision date: 2021-07-20
Acceptance date: 2021-07-20
Publication date: 2022-09-12
HIV & AIDS Review 2022;21(4):270-275
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ABSTRACT
With human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence of 0.14% in general population of Iran, a prevalence of at least 5-6% among residents of one village in Lordegan County is considered HIV outbreak. Investigating initial reactions of provincial authorities to this issue indicates a medical view overlooking social nature of HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Moreover, such an outbreak alarms change in epidemic patterns from localized to generalized in developing countries, such as Iran. In this perspective article, we tried to discuss such events focusing on policy. At this point, we concluded that Iran needs to represent the problem through changing policy image and policy venue in political arena. To strengthen the collaboration among all stakeholders, developing a universal pro-active strategy to facilitate resource mobilization for HIV control is necessary. Integration of social nature of HIV/AIDS, addressing and applying integrated approach to face social and economic harms as well as using a collaborative mechanism to guide various governmental, semi-governmental, and NGO sectors to control HIV/AIDS are all needed. Moreover, focusing more on adopting anti-stigma strategies and disseminating comprehensive public awareness about AIDS, can prevent Iranian society from repeating such situations, and trigger more appropriate responses if they do occur.
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