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July 17, 2004
Saturday
 
 
Ambiguous subheading
Antoine Clarke (London)  How very odd!

"Minister rejects Bush reliance on abstinence, and backs use of generic drugs"

If I did not know this was about treating AIDS in the Third World, this would be very funny. Spotted in Salon.com.

Comments

I have grown weary hearing how AIDS is treated as the only disease we must "find a cure" when cures for AIDS already exist. Want to cure AIDS? Stop spreading the disease through irresponsible behavior. Try abstinence, condoms, or monogomy. And, don't share needles!

I would rather not have my tax dollar spent on people who fail to recognize that responsible behavior is the most effective approach towards curing AIDS, not a pill.

Maybe the Minister wants to focus on the drug approach so that he will be able to profiteer on the misery. Drugs are, after all, big business.

By simply focusing on finding a 'pill' cure, we are perpetuating the disease far longer than necessary.

Changing behavior is the cure for AIDS.


Posted by syn at July 18, 2004 09:11 PM

So the millions of babies who acquire AIDS via vertical transmission (from their mother syn) should 'change their behaviour'???

Got any more bright ideas Einstein?

Your views are typical of an ignorant person, fortunate enough to be healthy in an affluent society; and unattractive enough to make abstinence your only option.


Posted by Lord Lummy at July 18, 2004 10:52 PM

No Lord Lummy, those who transmit AIDS to their innocent unborn are the ones who need a change in their behaviour.

Since millions of 3rd world babies are born with the AIDS virus we can safely assume the infected parents were neither abstaining from sex nor using condoms.

In order to prevent a million more innocent lives from becoming inflected with AIDS we need to focus on changing behavior, not simply designing drugs.

Ignorance is spreading the AIDS virus, not sex. Sex does not cause AIDS, it is the primary venue through which AIDS is spread. It is ignorance which is causing the disease to spread. AIDS is commonly spread by having unprotected sex with an infected partner. Unfortunately, when AIDS inflected heterosexuals have unprotected sex it will ultimately produce AIDS infected babies. We must change patterns of sexual behavior in order to effectively reduce AIDS infection.

By teaching less fortunate societies that unprotected sex endangers lives, that having unprotected sex with multiple partners endangers lives, or by encouraging monogamy and abstinence, we can reduce the infection rate whereby changing the impact of AIDS upon the world. More importantly, change the impact of babies being born unto a death sentence.

We are discovering drugs which address the symptoms of AIDS but, because it is a virus which mutates, it is very difficult to find a cure. Until a "cure" is found, the greatest hope we have available at our disposal in preventing AIDS is to change those behaviors which are perpetuating the spread of the disease.

Fortunately, because I grew up in an affluent society, I had the luxury of learning how to reduce the spread of the AIDS, discover means through which the disease can be regulated, how to lower infant AIDS mortality rates and so forth.

I suppose you could say that I would like to pass my 'affluent ignorance' on to others as my way of preventing further tragedy.

Simply relying on designer drugs as the only means by which we can "cure AIDS" will inevitably compound the spread of the disease. So, when I learn that a certain Minister "backs the use of generic drugs" over abstinence I believe that Minister would prefer people behave in ignorance.

Your good nature would not allow such behavior to continue, would it?



Posted by syn at July 19, 2004 05:51 AM
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