Pre-risk HIV-prevention paradigm shift: the feasibility and acceptability of the parents matter! Program in HIV risk communities.

New incidence data on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveal that the U.S. epidemic is—and has been—worse than previously estimated, and that young African Americans are disproportionately affected.1 In addition, CDC estimates that one in four adolescent women in the general population, and one in two adolescent African American women, are infected with at least one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), suggesting that our current sexual risk prevention efforts require new directions and additional tools.2 Furthermore, statistics compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation3 show that only 4% of the $23 billion the U.S. government is spending this year on all HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) activities (including research, medical care, and overseas programs) goes toward prevention. Taken together, these findings are a clarion call for new approaches to early sexual risk intervention in communities of color.