The model focuses on the promotion and maintenance of health through socio-environmental and behavioral change (Gilbert et al., 1996). Rather than keeping health and disease in a biological context, the PSE model analyzes them in a social context which takes a macroscopic view and offers a broader perspective. This understanding is in line with the psycho-socio-environmental (PSE) model of health and disease, in sharp contrast to the bio-medical model, which views health and disease "through the microscope" and offers technical solutions to what are largely social problems. HIV/AIDS is not merely a medical problem, but primarily a social one, as demonstrated by its spread as well as by the inability and inadequacy of the medical establishment to control and curtail its expansion. Although HIV/AIDS features prominently in the media and is fiercely debated in governmental and nongovernmental circles, the epidemic continues to grow rapidly, and efforts to combat it have not yielded the expected results. High-profile media coverage is a relatively new phenomenon in South Africa: one of the epidemic's main features since the beginning has been silence. This is but one of many recent statements in the South African media which captures the gravity of the epidemic, its potential impact on society, and the urgent need for effective interventions. SA AIDS death rate heading for one a minute. Within five years, one South African will die of an AIDS-related illness every minute unless action is taken now" ( Lowell, 2000:1 LOWELL, J., 2000. "South Africa has the fastest growing epidemic of any country in the world.
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