"Abstinence and sexual fidelity have played virtually no role"
Vivian Stamp | 27.02.2005 09:08 | Health | London | World
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.
"Abstinence and sexual fidelity have played virtually no role"
washingtonpost.com
Uganda's AIDS Decline Attributed to Deaths
By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 24, 2005; Page A02
BOSTON, Feb. 23 -- 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.
The findings, not yet published, contradict earlier evidence that attributed Uganda's success in AIDS prevention largely to campaigns promoting
abstinence and faithfulness to sex partners. Much of the prevention work in the Bush administration's $15 billion global AIDS plan is built around those two themes, and Uganda is frequently cited as evidence that the strategy works.
If the report here stands up to scrutiny -- and, more important, is borne out by surveys elsewhere in Uganda -- it will deflate one of the few supposed triumphs to come out of AIDS-battered Africa in the last decade.
The success of Uganda's ABC strategy -- the letters stand for "abstinence," "be faithful" and "(use) condoms" -- has been widely touted and is on the verge of being exported to neighboring countries with the help of American money.
"There is an urgent need to assess abstinence and monogamy in other parts of Uganda," said Maria J. Wawer, a physician at Columbia University's Mailman
School of Public Health who presented the data at the 12th Conference on Retroviruses, the annual mid-winter AIDS meeting in the United States.
washingtonpost.com
Uganda's AIDS Decline Attributed to Deaths
By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 24, 2005; Page A02
BOSTON, Feb. 23 -- 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.
The findings, not yet published, contradict earlier evidence that attributed Uganda's success in AIDS prevention largely to campaigns promoting
abstinence and faithfulness to sex partners. Much of the prevention work in the Bush administration's $15 billion global AIDS plan is built around those two themes, and Uganda is frequently cited as evidence that the strategy works.
If the report here stands up to scrutiny -- and, more important, is borne out by surveys elsewhere in Uganda -- it will deflate one of the few supposed triumphs to come out of AIDS-battered Africa in the last decade.
The success of Uganda's ABC strategy -- the letters stand for "abstinence," "be faithful" and "(use) condoms" -- has been widely touted and is on the verge of being exported to neighboring countries with the help of American money.
"There is an urgent need to assess abstinence and monogamy in other parts of Uganda," said Maria J. Wawer, a physician at Columbia University's Mailman
School of Public Health who presented the data at the 12th Conference on Retroviruses, the annual mid-winter AIDS meeting in the United States.
Vivian Stamp
Homepage:
http://groups.msn.com/WorkingGirls-Therisk
Comments
Hide the following 9 comments
But -----
27.02.2005 11:04
I wonder why a report is written which says to black Africans living with HIV/AIDS it's OK to sleep around again, who would benefit from that ??????
Queer
AIDS is just poverty renamed
27.02.2005 11:04
HIGHEST POVERTY RATES
Florida: Urban 23% All 20%
New York: Urban 20% All 19%
Calif: Urban 19% All 19%
LOWEST POVERTY RATES
Vermont: Urban 8% All 10,5%
New Hampshire: Urban 8.5% All 8.5%
HIGHEST AIDS BY RATING
Florida: Number 3
New York: Number 1
California: Number 2
LOW AIDS RATINGS
Vermont: Number 47
New Hampshire: Number 44
So do you really think there is no connection between so called 'AIDS' and poverty in America?
Immune suppression is caused mainly by poverty NOT some wonder virus.
Source: -
Mike Kennedy
Poverty ?
27.02.2005 17:08
tony
It may make more sense ..........
27.02.2005 17:19
The report did NOT say that a change in "abstinence and faithfulness" BEHAVIOR among Ugandans did not affect the HIV/AIDS rate. It said that the "abstinence and Faithfulness" PROGRAM played no role. Do you believe along with the US "Fundies" that programs encouraging people not to have sex outside of marriage and to be monogamous will actually affect the behavior of people? Why did you believe that it worked among Ugandans? And please .... that is NOT me calling the Ugandans stupid or anything (the same message doesn't change OUR behavior either).
Mike
e-mail:
stepbystepfarm mtdata.com
Response to Mike
27.02.2005 18:40
The great dilema here is obvious - we can keep these people alive but only by reinforcing outdated views. Difficult.
Edward
e-mail:
estone@medain.co.uk
Same result in major UK trial
28.02.2005 02:14
The East African (Nairobi)
March 17, 2003
Posted to the web March 19, 2003
By Paul Redfern, Special Correspondent Nairobi
"no hint of even a small effect."
A UK funded trial aimed at reducing the spread of Aids in Uganda by modifying sexual behaviour appears to have had little discernible effect.
The trial, carried out on around 15,000 people in the Masaka region, involved distributing condoms, treating around 12,000 victims of sexually transmitted diseases and counselling.
However, while the trial led to a marked change in sexual behavioural patterns, with the proportion reporting causal sexual partners falling from around 35 per cent to 15 per cent, there was no noticeable fall in the number of new cases of HIV infection, although there was a significant reduction in sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhoea.
The trial results, which were reported in the British medical journal The Lancet, have already aroused some controversy.
The team leader of the trial, Dr Anatoli Kamalai, acknowledged that there was "no measurable reduction" in HIV incidence with "no hint of even a small effect."
___________
JOIN: -
Paul King
Homepage:
http://www.virusmyth.com
Sex has nothing to do with AIDS
28.02.2005 02:18
Result of the largest and longest study of the heterosexual transmission of HIV in the United States:
We followed 175 HIV-discordant couples over time, for a total of approximately 282 couple-years of follow up [...]
We observed no seroconversion after entry into the study. Padian NS et al. Heterosexual transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Northern California: Results from a ten-year study. American Journal of Epidemiology. 1997;146(4):350-7.
David W. Rasnick, Ph.D., member of the Scientific Group for the Reappraisal of AIDS, also present this study in Sex has nothing to do with AIDS, a letter published by the British Medical Journal.
Paul King
Rock on
02.03.2005 02:43
NOTE: This is EVERY death of a Rock star we've found.
FROM A RELIGIOUS PURITAN FANATICS SITE
ROCKS STAR WHO DIED OF AIDS: - 4 (In 23 years)
Freddie Mercury Queen 91-11-24 45 Aids
David Mankaba Bhundu Boys 91-10-.. Aids
Fela Kuti 97-08-02 58 Aids
Sean Hayes 95-07-12 49 Aids
Four (mainly obscure) 'rock stars in twenty years. There have been more than 25,000 rock groups over that period in America with an average of
four members each.
That gives a figure (if you even believe they really died of 'AIDS') of 4 in 100,000.
The U.S. national average is 6 per 100,000 meaning that this highly sexually active as far lower 'AIDS' than the national average.
FAR LOWER.
So much for 'AIDS' being an std.
_______
PORN STARS
JUST ONE SINGLE FEMALE PORN STAR IN 23 YEARS.
In that time there have been at least 50,000 American female porn actresses.
That means a 2. per 100,000 rate. THREE TIMES LOWER THAN THE NATIONAL
AVERAGE.
Odd that people who have thousands of sex acts with hundreds and hundreds of partners have a tiny fraction of the 'AIDS' compared to the general
population.
Dean Maclear
Fela Kuti died of heart failure NOT AIDS
02.03.2005 07:45
GREAT INFORMATION. It make our case very well.
Paul King