Scaling up health promotion interventions in the era of HIV/AIDS: Challenges for a rights based approach

Abstract

A sustained scaled up response to global public health challenges such as HIV/AIDS will require a functioning and efficient health system, based on the foundation of strong primary healthcare. Whilst this is necessary, it is not sufficient. Health promotion strategies need to be put into place to better engage and support families and communities in preventing disease, optimize caring, creating the demand for services and holding service providers to account. There will have to be a move away from the traditional model whereby the problem of HIV/TB/malaria is to be solved by merely increasing resources to a centralized bureaucracy that tries to increase the supply of services including health promotion messages.