A Plan as Simple as ABC (for decreasing AIDS)

New York Times ^ | March 1, 2003 | Edward C. Green

[hocndoc]

A Plan as Simple as ABC By EDWARD C. GREEN

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. There have been suggestions that President Bush was able to promise $10 billion in new money to fight the AIDS pandemic in part because there is now a way to spend the prevention part of this sum (about half) in a way that is acceptable to conservatives. It's true that conservatives favor this approach, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work.

The initiative is based on what is called the "ABC approach." People might well wonder what this model is and what evidence supports it. Here is a summary of Uganda's experience.

We now know that the rate of new H.I.V. infections in Uganda started to decline in the late 1980's. But foreign experts began showing up in force in Uganda only in the early 1990's. Moreover, there were very few condoms in Uganda when the epidemic began to slow; they became widely available only after the experts appeared. Weren't "we" supposed to teach "them" how to prevent AIDS?

What happened was that beginning in 1986, Uganda tried to bring about nothing less than fundamental change in sexual behavior. It developed a low-cost program whose message, delivered by everyone from President Yoweri Museveni on down, was this: Stop having multiple partners. Be faithful. Teenagers, wait until you are married before you begin sex.

This is what has become known as the ABC model: Abstain, Be faithful, use Condoms if A and B fail.

By 1995, according to a survey financed by the United States, 95 percent of Ugandans were reporting either one or zero sexual partners in the past year. Moreover, the proportion of sexually active youth declined significantly from the late 80's to the mid-90's. The greatest percentage decline in H.I.V. infections and the greatest degree of behavioral change occurred in those 15 to 19 years old. This was also the group with the fewest AIDS deaths — showing that it was most likely behavior and not death rates that reduced infection rates.

Though only 8 percent of Ugandans aged 15 to 49 reported using condoms recently — this according to the 2000 Demographic and Health Survey, which is conducted for the United States Agency for International Development — the important thing is that those 8 percent engaged in practices that put them at the highest risk of H.I.V. infection. (This is an excerpt, the rest can be read at the above url.)

[hocndoc]

Truth is Truth, no matter which Hemisphere - or political sphere - in which it is expressed. This finding also refutes last week's suggestion that the rise of AIDS/HIV in Africa was due to negligent medical care in which unsanitary needles were re-used, causing the inadvertant infection of millions.

[hocndoc]

Maybe I should have added "Duh!" in the Keywords. But, I don't believe that most people will be at all surprised that decreasing promiscuity is more effective at preventing the transmission of the HIV than using condoms while being engaging in risky behavior.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[EdReform]

BTTT for later...

[sheik yerbouty]

A dose of Trinoasitol can't hurt.

[Remedy]

BUMP!

[Dan Wiz]

"It's true that conservatives favor this approach, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work"

A classic example of the arrogance and condescension of the liberal mindset. As if a policy that is favored by conservatives, and actually works, must be newsworthy!

[hocndoc]

The facts should speak for themselves.
And any functional strategy against AIDS is newsworthy.

[johnny7]

Though only 8 percent of Ugandans aged 15 to 49 reported using condoms recently.

Herein lies the problem... ignorance. There are many millions of pamphets distributed yearly, in every languge about AIDS, for poor readers also.

[singletrack]

here is the cure : SIT DOWN AND SHUT YOUR MOUTH........now I'll shut up and play my guitar....

[hocndoc]

I believe that you misunderstand. The Ugandan incidence and rates of infection have decreased because of abstinence, not because of use of condoms. The point of mentioning the rates of condom usage is that most people do not need them, and that those who do - those wh are engaging in risky behavior - are using them.

This is not a result of ignorance, but a direct result of the education effort named "ABC."

[boris]

My father was a physician (dermatologist). The public health laws in Maryland required him to report every case of venereal disease to the Dept. of Public Health and 'restrain' (not allow departure of) the patient until a public-health investigator arrived.

Contact tracing (who have you been with?) and quarrantine are the sovereign methods that the human race has learned over hard centuries in dealing with sexually-transmitted contagious diseases.

These measures would wipe out AIDS in a decade or less. But as William F. Buckley has stated, "HIV is the first virus to be granted civil rights," and hence these well-tested measures will not/cannot be used.

Buckley also recommended--to strident outcry--a 'truth in advertising' law, to wit: each person testing positive for HIV must bear a tattoo on his/her left buttock identifying him/her as HIV positive...

--Boris

[hocndoc]

That's nicer than the "Big Blue Dot" plan that I came up with after my first baby, and the stretch marks that came with him. I decided all Daddies needed something to mark them just as definitely: a big blue dot tattooed somewhere. (It's a joke, from the 70's, life was different then)

I do wish we had treated "HTLV" no differently than we treated any other "VD."
Political agendas and science do not mix.

One problem, though is that HIV is slower than most of the STD's, with some people testing negative long after they're actually infected, much less exposed.
Might as well try to treat all the women with HPV changes like we do syphillis and gonorrhea.