A draft copy of the internal resource guide for “Steps to a HealthierUS,” obtained by HABIT on April 29, contains no information on prevention of HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases. The draft contains the word “sex” only three times: once in reference to issues affecting youth, once in reference to Pap smears for “sexually active” women and once referring to gender as a factor in heart disease.

The guide’s introduction suggests that it will be used “within the department to promote consistent messages to the public and to health professionals in order to promote awareness of ways to foster and make healthier choices, which in turn can prevent a tremendous amount of disease and death.” Although the Steps initiative focuses primarily on obesity, diabetes, asthma and other chronic conditions, it also singles out tobacco use and alcohol abuse as priority areas for prevention.

The draft guide mentions sex as one of the topics identified by the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Youth for potential community interventions, but does not outline any scientific evidence or preventive messages to address the topic. Instead, youth are encouraged to “decrease their participation in risky behaviors like tobacco, drugs or too much alcohol and increase protective factors like wearing bicycle helmets.”

One HHS official says that many at HHS are practicing “self-censorship” with regard to topics related to sexual behavior, and that activities related to these topics “are being put on the backburner.”

“It is dismaying that an entire realm of human behavior with major health-implications is a taboo subject under the current administration. Sexual behavior and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS are rarely, if ever, mentioned or included under the current DHHS-leaderships plans and discussions for health promotion and disease prevention,” the official says.

For more information on the Steps initiative, click here.