Since AIDS is primarily transmitted through certain sexual behaviors, Americans' reticence about discussing sexual issues underlies many of the barriers to preventive action. Specific barriers are the refusal to accept condom advertising on network television, requirements that Federal AIDS education materials be phrased in ways that are inoffensive to most educated adults, and attempts to use Federal AIDS campaigns that present factual information about HIV transmission so as to deliver a message about desirable moral behavior. A historical review of societal responses to past epidemics shows the prevalence of stigmatization of persons who contract a dread disease. As regards the AIDS epidemic, the public has thus far repudiated the worst forms of stigmatizing punishment, and protections for confidentiality have been erected. Health professionals can counter the growth of stigmatization by the ways in which they define the disease, label those affected by it, serve their needs, and become their advocates. 44 references.