Museveni: abstinence saves lives.

Bangkok -- The XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, which ended July 16, 2004, revealed some startling facts. First, there were 5 million new cases of the disease in 2003, and 3 million deaths, including those of 500,000 children.

There are currently 40 million people living with AIDS. Of these, only 400,000 are on treatment; this is morally unacceptable, according to Dr. Kathryn Anastos who works in AIDS clinics in Montefiore and Lincoln Medical Centers in New York. Ninety-five percent (95%) of those who are HIV positive do not know it. The plea, therefore, is for everyone to be tested. How can anyone be treated if he is walking around, a living time-bomb, waiting to infect his next heart throb, or whomever? Why the masculine pronoun, you may ask? Because there is no doubt that the groups most affected are IV drug abusers, and men having sex with men.

The AIDS Conference discussed various tactics for controlling the disease. The most controversial but without a doubt the most successful (with 80% reduction in incidence over 5 years) was the program pursued by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni; namely, a combination of abstinence, fidelity in marriage, and--if you must--condoms; for short the A(bstinence)B(e faithful)C(ondoms) proposal. Who can argue with success?

Under pressure to do something about the problem, many are advocating pouring more dollars into the pot. This will not stop the spread of the disease. AIDS is already a 40-billion-dollar-per-year industry: drug companies doing the research and developing new drugs, scientists working in their laboratories, physicians who band together to open clinics for the treatment of AIDS, and AIDS epidemiologists working for the United Nations' WHO (World Health Organization)--all absorb much of the funds.

It is difficult to believe that any of these people are shedding tears that the epidemic is spreading into Eastern Europe and the countries once controlled by the Soviet Union. And what are the results? There is no vaccine on the horizon, nor will there be an effective and safe microbicide for at least another five years.

What about condoms? They were the bottom line at the AIDS summit. Anyone who wants to risk his or anyone else's life on a thin sheath of latex can do so. But one should remember that double gloving is strongly recommended for surgeons before going into the operating room. And one would do well to remember, also, the 500,000 innocent children who have paid the price of their parents' use of condoms, as well as the widowed grandparents, who are trying to look after the education and well-being of an additional 18 million more AIDS orphans (2003 UNICEF report) in their own failing years.

Why not just blurt out the truth, even at the risk to one's livelihood? Good public health practice in the face of an aggressive, infectious and fatal disease is to vaccinate, and to isolate the carrier until treated and rendered uninfectious. Remember that, with AIDS, life-long treatment is required, with follow-ups at six month intervals. How many of the 40,000,000 currently infected people will ever have access to that? Therefore, prevention must be the mainstay, and the only sure way of prevention is abstinence until marriage, then fidelity to one's partner for life. As in Uganda. (M.J. Ferrari, M.D.).

Comment:

A small advance towards the truth may have been made when Toronto's Globe & Mail admitted that abstinence and being faithful can be useful, and does not have to be placed in opposition to condoms. However, the paper then went on to suggest the world be flooded with condoms (Editorial, "Beyond Abstinence," July 14, 2004). Earlier, in an editorial on July 8, it had said, "In the face of the current suffering, the Vatican's deep-seated hostility to condom use is more than outdated. It is unconscionable." On July 16, 2003, a Globe editorial simply stated: "Abstinence doesn't work."

Delegates for the next International AIDS Conference will gather in Toronto in 2006. As the Globe informs us, a number of Canadian homosexual activists are preparing to dominate the meeting and promote Canada's "progressive" (i.e., pro same-sex "marriage," etc.) policies on AIDS, abortion, and condoms. Federal International Cooperation Minister Aileen Carroll, a pro-abortion Catholic and MP from Barrie, ON, was also on the scene in Bangkok.