, 1997; Ervin, 2005; Haddix, et al., 1995.).
The Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HERD) is active in ongoing research that is focused solely on the social and economic factors associated with the HIV/AIDS problem. It is a global organization that is more focused on international health, but it also works to educate people globally about HIV/AIDS and it develops programs that will aid the global community. It is an organization that takes a strong social science approach to this global human problem, (SABCOHA, 2009). It may very well be that society today is now finally able to begin to break down stereotypical barriers regarding the perceptions of HIV/AIDS and accept greater involvement by foundational efforts of the public health system. In which case, this may allow public health as a field to begin to utilize standard practices for other diseases with HIV/AIDS. These would include such things as name reporting, routine testing, testing notification, more effective transmission education and program intervention, and monitoring of individual agency activity, (Frieden, et al., 2005). .
All in all, in order to overcome economic barriers public health must advocate for itself as well with respect to resource needs. Research must be bolstered in the area of understanding the scope of socio- economic barriers certain populations may face in society as well. The biggest hump perhaps is bringing together the societal economic picture and the economics of research in order to bring a greater understanding of HIV/AIDS and all sexually transmitted diseases to policy makers at all levels of government. Policy makers need to fully understand the costs and benefits, the current social impact, and the future social impacts if no changes are made vs if changes are made, in order to more fully serve those in need and to more effectively educate the masses across all cultural boundaries.
