[Mb-civic] A washingtonpost.com article from: swiggard@comcast.net

[swiggard at comcast.net]

You have been sent this message from swiggard at comcast.net as a courtesy of washingtonpost.com 
 
 Wrong AIDS Policy
 
    THE LOUD arguments over AIDS treatment -- How safe are generic drugs? What should the poorest countries pay for them? -- sometimes obscure the fact that slowing the spread of the disease is at least as important. Last year another 4.9 million people became infected with the HIV virus. The low-tech business of raising awareness and encouraging safer behavior could save millions of lives. Unfortunately, it's not easy. To take just one statistic from December's update on the epidemic, published by UNAIDS: Although voluntary counseling and testing services have been greatly expanded in recent years, less than 1 percent of adults ages 15 to 49 use them.
 
 This is why AIDS prevention efforts must focus on high-risk groups -- high-risk not only in the sense that they are at greatest risk of infection but also in the sense that they pose the greatest risks to others. As we said last Sunday, these groups include drug users, who can infect each other quickly via shared needles, then spread the virus to the general population via unprotected intercourse; the Bush administration is wrong to oppose programs that distribute clean needles to addicts. Another high-risk group is prostitutes. If they don't get help to reduce the risks of infection, the victims will include not only the prostitutes and their clients but also the clients' spouses and children. 
 
 Unfortunately, U.S. policy on reaching out to prostitutes may be taking a turn for the worse. Since 2003 foreign groups receiving federal grants for AIDS work have been required to have a policy condemning prostitution; recently, the same requirement has been extended to American grantees, despite earlier concern that this constitutes an unconstitutional free-speech violation. The U.S. Agency for International Development says that this condemnation won't inhibit aid groups from counseling prostitutes on venereal disease, providing them with condoms and offering them HIV tests. But some organizations fear they will be pushed into urging prostitutes to give up their work, rather than helping the many who are in no position to do so. The fear is understandable. And if the new requirement has no practical effect, why have it?
 
 The Bush administration deserves credit for expanding the nation's response to international AIDS. It has been excessively attacked for urging sexual abstinence as part of a broader prevention effort, although a recent study from Uganda questions earlier findings that abstinence programs had worked there. But the administration should not allow its AIDS effort to be guided by utopian delusions. It would be nice if prostitutes the world over could be helped toward a different way of life. But the world's oldest profession is not going to disappear, and millions of lives depend on getting AIDS prevention services to its practitioners.
 
   

 Would you like to send this article to a friend? Go to 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/admin/emailfriend?contentId=A10510-2005Mar5&sent=no&referrer=emailarticle
 
 

Visit washingtonpost.com today for the latest in:

News - http://www.washingtonpost.com/?referrer=emailarticle

Politics - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/?referrer=emailarticle

Sports - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/sports/?referrer=emailarticle

Entertainment - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artsandliving/entertainmentguide/?referrer=emailarticle

Travel - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/travel/?referrer=emailarticle

Technology - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/technology/?referrer=emailarticle




Want the latest news in your inbox? Check out washingtonpost.com's e-mail newsletters:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?node=admin/email&referrer=emailarticle

Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
c/o E-mail Customer Care
1515 N. Courthouse Road
Arlington, VA 22201 

© 2004 The Washington Post Company