Health professionals and workshops with women - A useful strategy on AIDS prevention.
Int Conf AIDS 2004 Jul 11-16; 15:(abstract no. E10154)
Cromack LM, Silva LM, Ratto KM, Boareto C, Almeida TM, Brandao R, Beloni A Rio de Janeiro Municipal Secretariat of Health, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Introduction: Besides the efforts on Aids prevention in our country, the epidemy continues to grow, mainly among women. There are in Brazil 222356 cases of Aids. It's observed an increasing rate of growing among women (71% against 7,6 in men). The sexual transmition is predominant. It's already know that to promote Aids prevention the exchange of information is not sufficient. It's important to expose professionals and women to the possibility to feel the situation of risk to Aids infection, since what we used to call risk groups as drug users and persons with multiple partners are not adequate to the woman who gets Aids. Factors as gender inequalities, lack of authonomy and difficulties to negociates condom use are much more present. OBJECTIVE: The Training Center on Women Health is a Public Health Department of the city of Rio de Janeiro. It promotes workshops with health professionals during 80 hours each,in order not only to sensibilize them to the complex questions that involves Aids prevention with women, but simultaneously showing them techniques to employ with women working Aids prevention.
RESULTS: The Training Center had already done 22 workshops on contraception and 10 workshops in pre natal care, involving 698 professionals of various categories. All of the workshops had Aids prevention as a detached theme, discussed considering aspects linked with theme, discussed considering aspects linked with sexuality and gender relations.
LESSONS LEARNED: It's important to the professionals who work with women not to lose the opportunity to discuss Aids prevention in these two special moments that bring the women to public health services: the looking for contraception and pre natal care. These professional should work not only exchanging information, but also creating the possibility of women bring their day to day experiences in order to facilitate them to recognize risk situation to Aids infection in their own lives.
