Uganda: 'Abstinence-Only' Programs Hijack AIDS Success Story

[G_j]

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/03/30/uganda10380.htm

Uganda: 'Abstinence-Only' Programs Hijack AIDS Success Story
U.S.-Sponsored HIV Strategy Threatens Youth

(London, March 30, 2005)—U.S.-funded “abstinence-only” programs are jeopardizing Uganda’s successful fight against HIV/AIDS, Human Rights Watch said in a new report today. Abstinence-only programs deny young people information about any method of HIV prevention other than sexual abstinence until marriage.

The 80-page report, “The Less They Know, the Better: Abstinence-Only HIV/AIDS Programs in Uganda,” documents the recent removal of critical HIV/AIDS information from primary school curricula, including information about condoms, safer sex and the risks of HIV in marriage. Draft secondary-school materials state falsely that latex condoms have microscopic pores that can be permeated by HIV, and that pre-marital sex is a form of “deviance.” HIV/AIDS rallies sponsored by the U.S. government spread similar falsehoods.

“These abstinence-only programs leave Uganda’s children at risk of HIV,” said Jonathan Cohen, a researcher with Human Rights Watch's HIV/AIDS Program and one of the report’s authors. “Abstinence messages should complement other HIV-prevention strategies, not undermine them.”

..more..

[JohnLocke]

1. My God. Reprehensible.

There is simply nothing to say.

[rodeodance]

2. "US funded"--that is the KEY-- (culture of life??)

[Selteri]

3. I think you meant US 'Fundied' - Reprehensible, disgusting, inhumane! NT

[Hoping4Change]

19. "US Fundied" is beyond hilarious. LOLOLOLOL nt

[rodeodance]

27. yes, that is what I meant. Thanks (te he)

[sharonking21]

4. Cohen nails it!

Abstinence-only programs are a triumph of ideology over public health,” said Cohen. “Americans should demand that HIV-prevention programs worldwide stick to science.”

I am an ex-HIV/STD epidemiologist for a state health agency. I wrote this column for an on-line opinion journal. Sometimes I despair over the degree to which our country has become more and more retrograde--and on all fronts, not just this one.

The old popular refrain "Slip-Slidin' Away" keeps haunting me as I see everything in which I once believed concerning my country and its democratic, enlightenment values quietly recede into the past. And so few seem to see it or care.

Religion, Politics, and the Decline of Science
Commentary by Sharon King
June 9, 2004

So compelling are our misadventures in Iraq that I almost overlooked a small article published today about the Bush administration’s decision to withdraw funding from the esteemed Global Health Council, seemingly . . .

http://www.washingtondispatch.com/article_9253.shtml

[bast_rising]

12. This is an Excellent Commentary, Sharon King!

I'm a northeastern "kindred spirit," who started working in govt. research on HIV in '86. Can you believe that state needle exchange programs now must be labelled as "outreach sites" to obtain funding for federal money? The harm reduction philosophy (which to my mind has much to recommend) has been killed by a "we all know who" administration.

I'm happy that you retired. . .keep writing!

[sharonking21]

14. Don't get me started . . .

Thanks for the kind comments. I have to leave now to go take care of some things, but as to harm reduction, well, I once had to go with a group to try to educate our new Republican Health Commissioner (an MD who was the son of an important Republican Congressman and who was also a complete flake). More later on this (if I can quit chewing nails long enough).

[bast_rising]

21. LOL! Why Do I Suspect That Your Repub Commish Said. . .

that harm reduction "encourages drug use?"

[sharonking21]

25. You got it!

Except that I should add that this particular guy was really really a weird duck. He was a newly appointed health commissioner put in by Bush-Perry. We were not used to having political appointees in this position--former commissioners may have been identifiably Republican or Democrat but they were first and foremost promoters of science-based public health. He had formerly worked for Bush senior seeing that federal financial support for overseas family planning and health clinics who performed abortions was withdrawn, had no training or experience in public health.

Before he even got to TDH, but after he had been named, he gave an interview to the Houston Chronicle bragging about how he had been a virgin until he was 38 years old and how everyone should try it, and how, as an OB-GYN, he had enjoyed "bending women to his will" when it came to talking them out of having an abortion.

Just after he got there, we were putting on our annual HIV/STD Services and Prevention Conference and he was supposed to address it. He immediately stepped in it big-time by saying that homosexuality and drug use was purely a choice--all you had to do was quit it. Just say no. He got booed off the stage--not a good start. Thus he asked us to come up and educate him about harm reduction.

We went up there with a presentation but it was a disaster. He had a henchman he had hired and elevated to a position immediately under him. This guy's only claim to being qualified was that he had lived as a homeless person for a year and written a book about it.

Together they had some idea that you had to go beyond science--nothing would be solved by science but instead you had to tap into the love given by faith. The henchman called us "soulless bureaucrats" to our faces. The Commissioner went into a long-winded anecdotal story about how his grandfather had been both an abortionist and a heroin user (a pairing he apparently thought had great meaning). He said his grandfather had been sent off to rehab once but it hadn't worked, so he didn't believe in it. End of story.

Later they tried to post a job description for hiring an Associate Commissioner and that description included a prominent KSA that included something like "must be proficient in the dynamics of love and alienation." Even the Texas Legislature gagged on that one.

Later he was asked by the board to leave because one of his Associate Commissioners taped him promoting religion to her and promoting it in a way that seemed racist. The right wing Republicans succeeding him, of course, retained control, but at least they were mostly sane, if warped.

[bast_rising]

30. Amazing Story! I Hope he didn't go back into medical practice!

Our current Commish worked for Bush 1 too----Dr. Antonia Novello, former Surgeon General. Seems like we got the "cream" of the Bush appointees. We are very lucky to have someone who worked in HIV/AIDS in charge.

[sharonking21]

33. I don't know where

he went. I suppose I should check. I was just so relieved to have him gone, gone, gone. It was like having a cross between Tiny Tim and Groucho Marx in charge while the ship of health careered across a slanting sea. (Due to the somewhat nautical decor in the old main health building, I often thought of us as the H.M.S. Health Department.)

I heard Novello speak at an HIV/STD national conference in Dallas--she certainly seemed like a good spokesperson for HIV/AIDS.

[leQ]

32. that was a really good article sharon king. thanks for writing that

and being a voice for so many of us.

i guess i have to say i'm glad you're on our side.

[sharonking21]

34. Thanks, leQ

They always say write about something in which you are vitally interested and I was truly cheesed about the situation.

[G_j]

35. I agree

I hope you continue to write and publish.
I'm passing your article on, thanks.

[sharonking21]

36. Far and wide

Thanks for the encouragement. Pass it on to anyone who might be interested. Would have published it in the NYTs (if only I could have held a gun to their heads). :)

[DRoseDARs]

5. God: The ultimate condom ... breaks every time.

Even sheep intestine condoms are more dependable. :eyes:

[physioex]

6. This just sickens me.....

The little progress that has been made against AIDS is now lost. This idiot will leave his pReisdency and we will be set back 20 years in our fight against this disease......

[G_j]

7. I know, it is simply criminal

add it to the long, long list

[rodeodance]

28. and Bush should be held accountable (but he will not be)

[Judi Lynn]

8. US-funded scheme 'a threat to Uganda Aids programme'

US-funded scheme 'a threat to Uganda Aids programme'

Sarah Boseley, health editor
Wednesday March 30, 2005
The Guardian

Uganda, considered a beacon in Africa for its Aids-beating policies, is adopting sexual abstinence-only programmes financed by the US which could undo all its successes, a report says today.

Human Rights Watch warns that the new policies, which promote abstinence until marriage rather than condom use, leave not only young unmarried people but also women married to unfaithful men without the knowledge they need to protect themselves from infection.

Research within Uganda by Human Rights Watch has found that information on condoms, safer sex and the risks of HIV in marriage has been removed from primary schools, while some materials used in secondary schools falsely suggest that condoms have microscopic holes that allow the HIV virus through.

The Aids awareness programmes in schools are funded by the US and overseen by an American technical adviser at the ministry of education.
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,1447990,00.html

[LdyGuique]

9. It seems as though nary a day goes by without at least 2 or 3

stories that make me nearly incoherent with rage. I try to be tolerant, but I really do have problems with stupid people. Having this administration is sorely testing all of my efforts at tolerance.

It pisses me off that I may end up in an anger management program due to the policies of Bushco.

[rodeodance]

10. it is the kids that suffer as they are born with HIV--(the cult of life??)

......"These abstinence-only programmes leave Uganda's children at risk of HIV," said Jonathan Cohen, one of the report's authors. "Abstinence messages should complement other HIV-prevention strategies, not undermine them.".......

[G_j]

11. better to 'err on the side of death' when it comes to SEX -n/t

[Ezlivin]

15. Misery loves company

You and me both. Every single day I read or hear something and think, "Okay, another step closer to the Handmaid's Tale."

This is what happens when you live in the "reality-based" world.

Thank the gods for DU!

[DeepModem Mom]

13. This is disgraceful! nt

[Beetwasher]

16. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!! This Gets Me SO FUCKING

ANGRY!!!!!!!!!!

"Draft secondary-school materials state falsely that latex condoms have microscopic pores that can be permeated by HIV, and that pre-marital sex is a form of “deviance.” HIV/AIDS rallies sponsored by the U.S. government spread similar falsehoods."

ARGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Must contain my rage at this...I'm in danger of turning into The Hulk though...

This is too irresponsible for fucking words.

[mutus_frutex]

17. The Catholic Church should also be blamed.

The Vatican has been spreading this disinformation for many years. They have been undermining the ABC approach just because of the C.

[MountainLaurel]

31. Amen!

When you're deliberately spreading lies that are going to take people's lives -- though you'll be smoking a turd in hell anyway-- you need to pay in this life.

[oasis]

18. Bush could give a damn about saving their lives or their souls. A bunch

of self-righteous hypocrites.

[me b zola]

20. "George W Bush's Global Aids plan"

It seems as though his plan is to encourage the global spread of Aids.

8 million dollars a year to say "don't have sex outside of marrage or you're going to hell"??

Just when I think that this criminal administration could not further enrage me, I read a story like this.

Me to the rest of the world: "I am so very sorry." :cry:

[justjones]

22. Somehow, I don't see this as just simply ideology over science....

I really think they want all brown people to die of AIDS, thus the purposeful misinformation.

[G_j]

23. 'blankets with smallpox'

I hate to think that way also, but you really have to wonder why ppl are deliberately given the wrong information.

[rodeodance]

29. sex is such a taboo to Bush--he would rather have this death scene!1

[XemaSab]

24. Kristof today

discussed the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/opinion/30kristof.html?hp

What a downer.

"The stark reality is that what kills young women here is often not promiscuity, but marriage. Indeed, just about the deadliest thing a woman in southern Africa can do is get married.

Take Kero Sibanda, a woman I met in a village in Zimbabwe. Mrs. Sibanda is an educated woman and lovely English-speaker who married a man who could find a job only in another city. She suspected that he had a girlfriend there, but he would return to the village every couple of months to visit her.

"I asked him to use a condom," she said, "but he refused. There was nothing I could do.""

The irony is that President Bush's plan to tackle AIDS in Africa - spending far more than any previous administration - could be one of his best and most important legacies. It tackles one of the most important humanitarian challenges in the world today: at present infection rates in Zimbabwe, 85 percent of today's 15-year-olds will die of AIDS......

Perhaps the White House thinks it has the moral high ground when it preaches, completely irrelevantly, to women like Mrs. Sibanda about the need to be faithful. But it strikes me as hypocritical to pontificate about virtue while pursuing an ideological squeamishness about condoms that risks condemning Mrs. Sibanda and millions like her to die of AIDS.

[rodeodance]

26. Bush touts women and voting while endorses these polices that kill

women. It is insane and he gets away with it!! None of this was on the national news!

[G_j]

37. kick

[sharonking21]

38. List of Books on Epidemics, Outbreaks etc

For those of you so inclined, see my reading list of 'popular' books about outbreaks, epidemics and other medical topics at:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=209x1562

I thought this list might serve as a resource for those of you who are interested in these kinds of topics.