Behavioural Surveillance Surveys - The Wisdom of Whores

INTRODUCTION
Successful HIV prevention depends on changing risk behaviors.
This includes increasing condom use and reducing the numbers of sex
partners among sexually active people, reducing needle-sharing behavior
among injecting drug users, and delaying the onset of first intercourse
among young people − to name only a few.
As HIV continues to spread in many
countries, prevention efforts are increasing to
promote the changes in behavior mentioned
above. Every country needs information to
guide the design of appropriate prevention
programs and to monitor whether these efforts
are successful.
Behavioral surveillance surveys (BSS) have
been shown over several years to make an
important and useful contribution to informing
the national response to HIV. These surveys
use reliable methods to track HIV risk
behaviors over time as part of an integrated
surveillance system which monitors various
aspects of the epidemic. They are especially
useful in providing information on behaviors
among sub-populations who may be difficult
to reach through traditional household surveys,
but who may be at especially high risk for
contracting or passing on HIV, such as sex
workers and their clients, men who have sex
with men and injecting drug users.
As interest and experience in BSS has
grown, a demand has surfaced for all the
available tools to be gathered into a single
document. These guidelines meet that
demand. They are designed to provide a
“one-stop” reference to help public health
officials set up and manage systems that
provide reliable trends in HIV risk behaviors.
Information is also provided to help those
who will be implementing the surveys
themselves.
The guidelines cover the following areas :
1. The importance of behavioral surveillance
Chapter 1 discusses why behavioral
information is such an important building
block of effective HIV prevention efforts.
It describes the critical contribution of
behavioral data to an integrated HIV
surveillance system, and discusses various
data collection options. The particular
strengths of BSS, as well as its limitations,
are discussed in detail. This chapter will be
especially useful to public health officials
who are running national (or regional)
surveillance, monitoring and evaluation systems.
2. The survey process, step by step
Chapter 2 describes the steps that must
be taken in setting up and conducting repeat
behavioral surveys in groups at risk for HIV
infection. It gives an overview of the entire
process, many aspects of which are discussed
in detail in other chapters. This section guides
surveillance system managers, but also
provides information for BSS implementers.