An HIV prevention intervention in which young people who had tested negative for sexually transmitted infections were given lottery tickets and had the possibility of winning a cash prize reduced the number of HIV infections by 39% in young women, researchers reported to the 7th International AIDS Society conference (IAS 2013) this week. However, the intervention did not have any impact on young men in this trial in Lesotho.
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The conference also heard results of an intervention in Vancouver, Canada to improve engagement of drug users in HIV testing and post-test follow-up. It is generally more feasible to use financial incentives to facilitate a discrete, time-limited health behaviour such as testing or vaccination, in contrast to sustained sexual behaviour change, as seen in Lesotho.
Roger Pebody
aidsmap
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