ABC of AIDS. Counselling.

AIDS counselling has two main aims.The first is to educate sexually active people to avoid and stop the spread ofthe human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).Counselling and health education ofindividuals is the only demonstrably effective means of motivating reliable changes in sexual behaviour.The second aim is to prevent and manage the psychological morbidity Education arsing from fear ofand knowledge of HIV infection.Again, an individual's Safe sex fear of HIV infection is reliably managed only by individual counselling.Public ignorance When counselling is not provided or is insufficient severe, chronic psychological or psychiatric disturbance may result.Suicides have Support occurred, for example, where counselling services have been absent.Individual counselling to prevent These two aims-education and support-are necessary because the psychological morbidity acquiredimmunedeficiency syndrome (AIDS) can soeasilybe prevented by changes in sexual behaviour and because the stigma associated with AIDS can lead to overwhelming fears ofrejection and oppression.The public's ignorance ofthe true nature ofHIV infection, routes oftransmission, and consequences means also that the test for HIV antibodies is widely misunderstood.Counselling therefore has an important part to play well before knowledge ofinfection is reliably determined with the antibody test.