Health professionals involved in the treatment and prevention of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) have recently begun to address the cultural factors involved in their work. Culture is relevant to AIDS in that it influences beliefs about illness and sexual practices, language use and communication style, family roles and structure, and religious beliefs. The purpose of this activity is to familiarize you with some of the cultural considerations in the prevention and treatment of AIDS.

Read the descriptions below. SELECT ONE and, explain how you might address the treatment or prevention of AIDS in a manner appropriate to the cultural context. Discuss what the particular challenges would be and how you would address those challenges. You must cite at least one peer-reviewed reference (in addition to the source below) and include a reference section at the bottom of your response. Your response should be at least 2 pages long and include references.

Pamela Balls Organista and Kurt C. Organista (1998) have identified Mexican migrant workers in the United States (primarily laborers and seasonal farmworkers) as a new at-risk population for AIDS. These authors point to such risk factors as prostitution use, male homosexual contact, limited knowledge regarding HIV transmission and proper condom use, and female migrants having high-risk sexual partners. Balls Organista and Organista explain that programs for treating and preventing AIDS face cultural barriers in that:
Mexican migrant workers may have limited literacy and English speaking ability.
There is a tendency for traditional Latino men and women to avoid directly discussing sexual matters.
Migrant workers are by definition a transient group.
Migrant workers often live in conditions of poverty.
Mexican migrant women tend to believe that carrying condoms makes one promiscuous.
Stan Sesser (1994) explains that there is such stigma attached to AIDS in Japan that the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare has funded an HIV testing clinic in Hawaii for Japanese citizens. AIDS is viewed particularly negatively since, from a Japanese perspective, it is associated with homosexuality and with foreigners. According to Sesser, those who fly to Hawaii to be tested often state that the plane fare for the 4.000 mile trip is well worth the guarantee of anonymity because public knowledge of being HIV positive would be disastrous in Japan.
A relatively new class of drugs, called protease inhibitors, has greatly decreased deaths from AIDS where the drugs are available. African Americans as a group, however, have not benefitted from the availability of these drugs to the extent expected by health professionals. Some health professionals and AIDS patients have attributed this in part to the fact that protease inhibitors are experimental and may trigger memories of the Tuskeegee study of the 1930s in which researchers studied the effects of syphilis by allowing hundreds of infected African American men to go untreated (Wilson, 1997).
A relatively new class of drugs, called protease inhibitors, has greatly decreased deaths from AIDS where the drugs are available. African Americans as a group, however, have not benefitted from the availability of these drugs to the extent expected by health professionals. Some health professionals and AIDS patients have attributed this in part to the fact that protease inhibitors are experimental and may trigger memories of the Tuskeegee study of the 1930s in which researchers studied the effects of syphilis by allowing hundreds of infected African American men to go untreated (Wilson, 1997).

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