HIV prevention in Dallas, Texas

This research investigates issues of HIV prevention in Dallas, Texas within the context of two minority communities experiencing high rates of HIV incidence. Minority communities throughout the United States have disproportionately been affected by HIV and AIDS. Accurately pinpointing, at the local level, why this is occurring and developing appropriate interventions to lower disease rates has been the focus of several federally funded projects. Working under the auspices of one such program, this research utilizes an eclectic mix of anthropological theory and methods to explore the factors behind each community's rates of HIV. Specifically, I examine the historical development of each community and its relation to the overall evolution of the politics of HIV and AIDS in Dallas. Additionally, I examine HIV prevention from the perspective of those already infected and suggest that the Center's for Disease Control and Prevention may need a more nuanced approach to screening HIV positive individuals for sexual risk behaviors. This work has something to offer to readers interested in the anthropology of HIV/AIDS as well as to those with interests in policy and organizational studies. My research demonstrates that rapid health assessment projects can successfully identify critical gaps in health prevention, in this case HIV prevention and services; assess the needs of community members; detect risk behaviors occurring within a community; and develop practical low-cost recommendations to enhance prevention efforts. I conclude however that rapid assessment studies such as this are filled with potential pitfalls, and that the successful implementation of project recommendations depends not only on the ethnographer's ability to understand the community of study but on one's capacity to grasp who controls the flow of services to a community and how to advocate project recommendations with these political gatekeepers.