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Last week, U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin and the National Prevention Council released the National Prevention Strategy (NPS), a comprehensive plan that will help increase the number of Americans who are healthy at every stage of life. The NPS includes actions that public and private partners can take to help Americans stay healthy and fit and improve our nation’s prosperity. The NPS outlines four strategic directions, all of which are highly relevant to the mission and programs of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. Those four strategic directions are:> Building Healthy and Safe Community Environments: Prevention of disease starts in our communities and at home; not just in the doctor’s office.
> Expanding Quality Preventive Services in Both Clinical and Community Settings: When people receive preventive care, such as immunizations and cancer screenings, they have better health and lower health care costs.
> Empowering People to Make Healthy Choices: When people have access to actionable and easy-to-understand information and resources, they are empowered to make healthier choices.
> Eliminating Health Disparities: By eliminating disparities in achieving and maintaining health, we can help improve quality of life for all Americans.
To help achieve these goals, the NPS identifies evidence-based recommendations that are most likely to reduce the burden of leading causes of preventable death and major illness. The NPS’s seven priority areas are tobacco free living, preventing drug abuse and excessive alcohol use, healthy eating, active living, injury and violence-free living, reproductive and sexual health, and mental and emotional wellbeing.
The release of the NPS signals an exciting time for public health in general, and in the prevention of HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, STDs, and TB, specifically. The NPS creates an important new strategic framework to comprehensively address the nation’s prevention priorities, including those relevant to NCHHSTP programs, across all aspects of government and society.
Of particular importance to our work together is the inclusion of "Reproductive and Sexual Health," as one of the targeted priorities of the NPS. This priority is an important step in reinforcing the importance of sexual health to one's overall health outcomes.
The NPS notes that, “healthy reproductive and sexual practices can play a critical role in enabling people to remain healthy and actively contribute to their community,” and also that, “access to quality health services and support for safe practices can improve physical and emotional well-being and reduce teen and unintended pregnancies, HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, and other sexually transmitted diseases.”
The comprehensive set of prioritized prevention efforts for reproductive and sexual health include the following: increase use of preconception and prenatal care, provide effective sexual health education—especially for adolescents, support reproductive and sexual health services and support services for pregnant and parenting teens, and enhance early detection of HIV, viral hepatitis, and other sexually transmitted infections and improve linkage to care.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation looks forward to sharing more information with you about the NPS as it becomes available. To view the National Prevention Strategy, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org/additionaltopics.html.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
