**1. Introduction**

"The first step [in transforming] reality is [usually] learning to see it [from] a new perspective (and being capable of showing it to others [in] this light)." *Jorge Riechmann*

Despite the fact that over three decades have passed since the first recorded case of AIDS in 1981, many questions remain unanswered regarding the HIV pandemic: how did HIV originate? When will an effective vaccine be available? How do strategies and measures for prevention need to be designed and implemented?

Currently, the prevention and elimination of HIV is one of the major challenges for public health worldwide. The HIV pandemic constitutes a social problem of great magnitude. It is a complex social phenomenon that is difficult to address. Thus, in order to study its complexity, it is necessary to adopt an interdisciplinary approach. In this sense, the sociological discipline and in particular, the sociology of health, is an important tool for the study and understanding of HIV. The general purpose of this chapter is to reveal and justify the relevance of integrating a sociological perspective to the study of HIV prevention. Firstly, the extent and magnitude of the epidemic on a global scale is described. Secondly, sociological theories and methodologies that might be usefully applied in the field of HIV prevention and treatment are presented and justified. Finally, conclusions are drawn considering a number of relevant and pertinent analytical elements that are crucial to the development of HIV prevention policies.

© 2015 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
