With so complex a phenomenon, how do we begin to confront the negative impact of HIV/AIDS stigma on public health efforts to prevent, diagnose, and treat HIV/AIDS? Like members of any knowledgebased profession, we start with what we know works. For example, we must continue to educate successive generations of America’s youth about how HIV is and is not transmitted, since we know that stigma is more likely to thrive in an environment of ignorance and half-truths.