HIV outbreak storytelling among residents of an area in Iran: what are the overlooked implications for health policy-makers?

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.

Keywords

• hiv/aids
• lordegan
• iran
• outbreak
• policy analysis