From UCLA & Cal State Dominguez Hills
Even as the Obama administration announced its new strategy to combat HIV-AIDS with a focus on high-risk groups, experts in Southern California have revealing new research about African American couples and intravenous drug users and the disease. In Westwood, Bruin scientists say they've seen promising results in promoting safer sex practices among black couples who have tested a culturally specific intervention program based in the African concept of 'Eban.' It symbolizes 'safety, security and love within one's family and relationship space,' researchers say, noting their program saw safer sexual behaviors in African American couples in which one partner is HIV-positive. Meantime, in Dominguez Hills, two psychology grad students, in examining the workings of 'clean syringe' programs that try to reduce HIV-AIDS infections among intravenous drug users, found geographical, attitudinal disparities among pharmacists who might be asked to sell safer needles to at-risk populations. While 74% of pharmacists in Los Angeles turned away suspected injection drug abusers seeking to buy clean syringes, only 33% of their professional counterparts in San Francisco did so, the researchers found, noting that the potential harm reduction (lessened risk of HIV-AIDS or Hepatitis C infection through shared kits) seemed vastly less persuasive in the Southland than the Bay Area.
In Westwood, African 'Eban' program found to help curb risky sexual behavior in black couples
*Updated 9-9-201: a working link to a finding of skepticism among L.A. pharmacists
In Dominguez Hills, a finding of skepticism among L.A. pharmacists about 'clean needle' programs
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