Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

News and views about philosophy, the academic profession, academic freedom, intellectual culture, and other topics. The world’s most popular philosophy blog, since 2003.

  1. Margaret Gilbert's avatar
  2. Margaret Gilbert's avatar
  3. John Rapko's avatar
  4. Roger of Invisible America's avatar
  5. Brian Kogelmann's avatar
  6. RMD's avatar
  7. Textbook Author's avatar

Some good news for a change (Wilson)

Not in the U.S., of course.  But a recent Lancet study shows that HIV infections in south India are down by 1/3, thanks to condom and education programs.  From the study abstract:

A reduction of more than a third in HIV-1 prevalence in 2000–04 in
young women in south India seems realistic, and is not easily
attributable to bias or to mortality. This fall is probably due to
rising condom use by men and female sex workers in south India, and
thus reduced transmission to wives. Expansion of peer-based condom and
education programmes for sex workers remains a top priority to control
HIV-1 in India.

Now back to the bad news.  What about countries that, thanks to draconian U.S. aid policies whereby condom distribution has been cancelled (if abortion counseling is mentioned as one of a women’s reproductive options) or greatly reduced (as part of requirements that recipients of aid emphasize abstinence and "fidelity" over condoms), are now facing a condom shortage?  HIV infections are decreasing in those countries, too:

Abstinence and sexual fidelity have played virtually no role
in the much-heralded decline of AIDS rates in the most closely studied
region of Uganda, two researchers told a gathering of AIDS scientists
here.

It is the deaths of previously infected people, not
dramatic change in human behavior, that is the main engine behind the
ebbing of the overall rate, or prevalence, of AIDS in southern Uganda
over the last decade, they reported.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Designed with WordPress