Because male sex work has been closely linked to male homosexuality, official reactions to male sex workers often mirror those to homosexuality. In geographic areas where male homosexuality is actively policed, such as in Africa, a two-tiered approach to male sex work has typically emerged in which clients are punished and the sex worker is subjected to welfare-based interventions and treatment. Prior to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, homosexual acts in Africa were policed on the basis that male sex work typically involved the abuse of younger men by older men. Following the appearance of HIV/AIDS, regulation of male sex work in Africa was instead justified on the basis of a public health crisis. While there were calls for draconian interventions, including the quarantine (essentially imprisonment) of at-risk populations, some public health interventions in Africa adopted a more liberal approach, which relied on individuals and communities to take responsibility for their own health care. Health officials attempted to devise strategies for disease control that included the participation of communities (real and imagined) that the virus affected. This voluntarism approach to the problem of HIV/AIDS was supported by many gay leaders, civil libertarians, physicians, and public health officials, who demanded that education provide the central, if not sole, response to the virus.