Sexuality and public health

Abstract

This chapter seeks to provide an overview of this rapidly growing body of work in public health. It describes the initial public health response to sexuality in the context of HIV and AIDS, as well as the ways in which that response has been gradually broadened over time in order to provide a more comprehensive approach to sexual health and well-being. It also focuses on both the local and the global dimensions of this work, in both developed and developing countries, and as much in the work of local communities struggling to respond to the needs of their own populations, as well as on the part of a range of international agencies that are increasingly seeking to address a range of challenges to sexual health.