Abstract
The Italian AIDS hot-line has recently completed its first two operational years Established as an emergency service, it was initially overloaded with calls, under the emotional impact of a new disease. As the average number of calls settled to around a hundred per day, a wider approach aimed at the concerns raised by callers has been possible. A particular effort has been made to handle psychological and social aspects of HIV infections. A large proportion of the questions analyzed (62,500) deal with doubts about transmission (30%), reliability of diagnostic tests (15%), and handling individual situations. Some categories of callers, such as drug users, parents or relatives of HIV-infected people, and seropositives often require experienced telephone counselling. HIV-positive callers follow the proportional distribution of AIDS cases in Italy: intravenous drug users forming the majority, followed by homosexuals and finally heterosexual subjects (reaching 10%, a value in accordance with trend projections). The demand for advice has increased over time, together with an evident refinement of question content.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 145-152 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | AIDS Care - Psychological and Socio-Medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV |
Volume | 1 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1989 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
- Health(social science)
- Social Psychology
- Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
- Health Professions(all)