the Sugar Conspiracy

Wednesday, July 09, 2003

Safe sex vs. abstinence

Here's a really interesting article in the Washington Post about the success Uganda has had in combatting AIDS. Bush will be traveling to Uganda and there's some tension between the abstinence only type of education versus education about safe sex and the proper use of condoms.
In Uganda, where nearly 1 million people have died as a result of AIDS since the deadly disease was first identified in the East African nation in 1983, it's almost never too early to start talking about AIDS or sex education. The entire nation, from the president to grandmothers and first-graders, has mobilized over the last 11 years in Africa's most successful fight against the epidemic. While Africa is home to 70 percent of the world's HIV patients, and in some countries at least one in three adults are HIV-positive, Uganda's AIDS and HIV infection rates have plummeted from 30 percent to 5 percent in slightly more than a decade.

Uganda's HIV-fighting mantra is referred to as ABC: Abstain, be faithful or use a condom. The government launched a massive campaign on radio, television and in newspapers to encourage people to get tested and to follow the ABC's. It was the first African country to even talk about AIDS, which had been considered a taboo topic. In Kenya, leaders denied AIDS existed and called it "a mysterious disease."

Still, the rates of infection in Uganda are uneven, with higher numbers in rural areas, health workers say. Free testing has been slow finding its way to rural areas, and people there cannot afford the $4 to $7 fee. They also don't have as much access to condoms and health care. Women living in poverty suffer the most because they perform sex for money. But in the cities, people of all ages are frank and focused about wearing condoms and getting tested frequently.

posted by chris at 1:08 PM
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