HIV/AIDS: The Silent Killer - Essential New Course Available Free on ALISON

Aug. 27, 2008 - PRLog -- HIV/AIDS is one of the world’s most important health issues. In sub-Saharan Africa it is the most important health issue. All experts are agreed, the education of those most at risk of infection is the single most effective method for slowing and ultimately halting the spread of HIV/AIDS. In 2002, the World Bank published the paper Education And HIV/AIDS: A Window of Hope, which stated that basic education is the single best preventative strategy against the continuing spread of the pandemic.

One of the most significant obstacles to delivering this education, is the lack of healthy teachers within the countries most at risk. Many have died from AIDS, many more with HIV have moved to the cities for treatment. The children they leave behind are suffering as a result, and the chances of those same children becoming HIV positive are increased substantially without the basic education to provide them with the knowledge that they need to avoid infection.

HIV/AIDS: The Silent Killer, is a groundbreaking course from the TeachAIDS organization focusing on the important issues of what are HIV/AIDS, how the pandemic is changing the world, and most importantly, how to prevent its continuing spread. The areas covered by the course include: What is HIV/AIDS?, how does infection occur, how to protect oneself, why testing is important, and what can be done to help prevent the onward march of this terrible virus. Commenting on the link-up with TeachAIDS, ALISON CEO Mike Feerick commented: “ALISON is delighted to provide this course free to learners worldwide. Health literacy is one of the most important aspects of the social mission of ALISON, and as such we are delighted to have partnered with a provider of such vitally important and respected courseware.”

HIV/AIDS: The Silent Killer is presented in a highly interactive format that carries the interest of the learner throughout. It was developed through the School of Education at Stanford University, and is an initiative to promote HIV/AIDS prevention strategies through research-based, culturally appropriate interactive learning tools. Diseases such as HIV/AIDS that are transmitted sexually, present significant challenges because social stigma often precludes open discussion. By providing a fully-comprehensive learning package available free online, it is hoped that many of those who might otherwise miss the opportunity of being educated properly about HIV/AIDS will now get that chance, thanks to TeachAIDS and ALISON.

ALISON
Launched in April 2007, ALISON provides freely accessible learning to individual learners. With registered learners in every country and territory worldwide, its mission is to enable anyone, anywhere, to educate themselves for free via interactive self-paced multimedia. Based in Galway, Ireland, the focus of ALISON is interactive learning for basic and essential life and workplace skills. If your organization has a mandate to provide education on any subject of public interest, or has high quality interactive content it would be happy to share worldwide, the ALISON team would pleased to facilitate its publication and promotion.

TeachAIDS
In 2005, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the fields of education, public health, communications and medicine joined efforts to develop pedagogically-grounded, rich-media based learning applications for young adults around the world. TeachAIDS mission is to use an iterative design approach to develop, evaluate and disseminate culturally-appropriate learning materials to promote HIV/AIDS prevention despite social and cultural barriers. Learning materials are based on formative and summative assessments aimed to promote learning and retention among learners.

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About ALISON: The world's leading free online learning resource for basic and essential workplace skills. The ALISON mission is to enable anyone, anywhere, to educate themselves for free via interactive self-paced multimedia.