cultural

The success of health programs targeting HIV largely depends on the availability of institutional and individual resources that would support efforts towards disease prevention , health promotion , and the actual treatment of infected persons . San Francisco 's experience with battling the AIDS epidemic from its beginning in the 1980s to the present reveals the significant influence of social , economic , and cultural factors both in assisting and impeding HIV prevention and treatment programs in preventing the further spread of HIV especially among high-risk populations

Indeed , a report from the HIV Prevention Planning Council

of the San Francisco Department of Public Health (2004 ) indicate that among the contributing factors to the rise of HIV cases in San Francisco are rampant drug use , socio-economic and ethnic /racial inequality , and the prohibitive cost of HIV treatment . Substance abuse , particularly the use of intravenous drugs , is considered a key factor in the increases in new HIV infections (San Francisco Department of Public Health , 2004 br

. 13 ) since it facilitated HIV transmission from an infected person to another through unsanitary needles . In the same manner , socio-economic difficulties and poverty often made people more vulnerable to turn to either drugs or unsafe sex as a recreational or economic activity (Zierler Krieger , 1997 ,

. 405 ) which exposed these individuals to an increased risk of contracting HIV . Ethnic /racial inequalities in terms of access to social resources also played an important role in increasing HIV risk since discrimination against people of color and the poverty of their communities often limited...