AIDS Fatigue?
New National Survey on HIV/AIDS Finds Increased Support for U.S.
Leadership to Fight the Epidemic Abroad and at Home 

After 25 Years of AIDS in America Basic Misconceptions About the Disease Persist

Washington, D.C. – At a time when there is a growing budget deficit, the American people, despite their characteristic distaste for foreign aid, increasingly believe that the U.S. should be a global leader on HIV/AIDS, including spending more money to help fight the epidemic abroad and at home, according to a new national survey on HIV/AIDS released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Six in ten Americans agree that the U.S. is a global leader and has a responsibility to help fight HIV/AIDS in developing countries – up from 44% in 2002. In addition, more than half (56%) think the U.S. is spending too little on HIV/AIDS in developing countries – up from 31% in 2002.

While there is increased support to do more, Americans seem to recognize the big challenges in confronting HIV/AIDS worldwide. Four in ten Americans (40%) think the world is losing ground on the epidemic; overwhelming majorities think most people with HIV in developing countries do not get needed medication (92%) and that most people at high risk do not have access to needed prevention services (81%).

Americans’ sentiment to do more is also seen on the domestic front with nearly two thirds of all Americans (63%) saying that the U.S. government is spending too little at home to fight HIV/AIDS – up from 52% in 2004. This willingness to spend more may stem from a belief that increased spending on prevention (62%) and testing (59%) will lead to meaningful progress in slowing the epidemic.

“Perhaps surprisingly, it appears that the American public does not suffer from AIDS fatigue – they want more done and believe it will pay off,” said Drew E. Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “From Bill Clinton and George Bush to Bono and Bill Gates, to the work of countless HIV organizations and people with AIDS, the efforts of many seems to have helped engage the public.”

With this June marking the 25th year of the epidemic (on June 5, 1981 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) issued its first warning about a disease that would become known as AIDS), there is an opportunity to reflect on the public’s general knowledge about the disease. In the early years of the epidemic, fear and misinformation were pervasive, as researchers worked to first identify and then better understand the virus and how it spread. By the mid-1980s progress was starting to take hold as the share of people who incorrectly thought that HIV was spread through kissing, sharing a drinking glass, and touching a toilet seat began to decline. That progress leveled off in 1990 and has remained relatively constant since. Today, significant percentages of Americans think HIV might be spread through kissing, sharing a drinking glass, and touching a toilet seat – 37%, 22%, and 16% respectively.

In addition, a majority does not know that a pregnant woman with HIV can take drugs to reduce the risk of her baby being infected (55%), or that having another sexually transmitted disease (STD) may increase a person’s risk of getting HIV (56%).

The Survey of Americans on HIV/AIDS was designed and analyzed by survey researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Interviews were conducted between March 24 and April 18, 2006, among a nationally representative random sample of 2,517 respondents 18 years old and older. The survey covers a variety of topics including HIV/AIDS as a problem for our nation, knowledge and perceptions about HIV/AIDS, domestic HIV spending and program priorities, views on the global HIV epidemic, and African Americans and HIV. In June, findings from this survey on HIV testing will be released.

The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit, private operating foundation dedicated to providing information and analysis on health care issues to policymakers, the media, the health care community and the general public.