Thread: US Criticised For HIV Aid Effort

US policy is undermining the efforts of African countries to fight the HIV epidemic, a leading UN figure has said.

Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy on Aids, said President George Bush’s $15bn Emergency Plan for HIV/Aids was too focused on promoting abstinence.

He said Washington was practising “incipient neo-colonialism” by telling African nations how to fight Aids.

He also accused the West of failing to deliver on funding commitments they had made to fight the disease.

Speaking at the 16th International Aids Conference in Toronto, Mr Lewis said: “No government in the Western world has the right to dictate policy to African governments around the way in which they respond to the pandemic.”

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicentre of the Aids pandemic, with two-thirds of all people living with HIV coming from the region.

Two million people died of Aids in the region last year and there were 2.7m new infections.

The Bush administration backs an “ABC” plan to fight Aids: Abstinence until marriage; Being faithful to one sexual partner; and if those conditions are not practised, the use of Condoms.

In 2003, the US Government approved a $15bn package over five years to fight the spread of Aids.

Abstinence programmes

But the US Congress has stipulated that a proportion of the funds must be spent on encouraging abstinence-until-marriage programmes.

Mr Lewis said abstinence programmes had been shown not to work.

“That kind of incipient neo-colonialism is unacceptable.

“We’re saying to Africa: ‘This is how you will respond to the pandemic’ and that’s not appropriate because African governments are eminently capable of deciding what their priorities are and what the response should be.”

“You do not provide money on the condition that they reflect your ideological priorities.”

Top US officials have rejected the criticism, denying it promotes abstinence to the detriment of other HIV prevention strategies, or that it is designed to appease conservative Republicans.

Mark Dybul, US Global Aids coordinator, said only 7% of funding for 2005 had been spent on abstinence programmes.

He said: “There is no evidence in support of what they are saying.

“It is colonialistic to not support ABC. ABC was developed by Africans for Africans—we are supporting their strategies.”

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Lewis said the West had failed to provide sufficient funds to finance effective long-term prevention and treatment programmes.

“The G8 countries could help to break the back of this pandemic if they viewed it as an emergency like no other emergency—as the worst scourge on the face of the planet since the Black Death of the 14th century.

“That sense of urgency is not yet evident.”

BBC NEWS | Health | US criticised for HIV aid effort

AIDS is an avoidable disease. The fact that new cases are discovered in this country every day is indicative of people's wanton disregard for their health. AIDS has been a prevalent part of our society for over 20 years and the risks have been drilled into our heads.

Money will not cure this disease, people will, by knowing the risks and taking precautions. Don't have promiscuous sex, if you do, use protection; don't share needles, how hard is that? Yes, a small number of cases can be attributed to blood transfusions, but technology has come a long way and those cases are not as high as they once were.

HIV Estimate
At the end of 2003, an estimated 1,039,000 to 1,185,000 persons in the United States were living with HIV/AIDS, with 24-27% undiagnosed and unaware of their HIV infection.

AIDS Cases
In 2004, the estimated number of diagnoses of AIDS in the United States was 42,514. Adult and adolescent AIDS cases totaled 42,466 with 31,024 cases in males and 11,442 cases in females. Also in 2004, there were 48 AIDS cases estimated in children under age 13.
The cumulative estimated number of diagnoses of AIDS through 2004 in the United States is 944,305. Adult and adolescent AIDS cases total 934,862 with 756,399 cases in males and 178,463 cases in females. Through the same time period, 9,443 AIDS cases were estimated in children under age 13.

See What Have We Learned from HIV/AIDS Surveillance? | Statistics and Surveillance | Topics | CDC HIV/AIDS for graphs and more information.

It's pretty simple, people just don't care.

Ignorance isn't always bliss, sometimes apathy is neccessary.

So Bush's wonderful plan was similar to the Pope's. Great. Like that the world will really go good.......

The Bush administration backs an “ABC” plan to fight Aids: Abstinence until marriage; Being faithful to one sexual partner; and if those conditions are not practised, the use of Condoms.

Makes sense to me.

"He also accused the West of failing to deliver on funding commitments they had made"

Wow!! I'm shocked that our gov has not paid monies promised. This current regime is notorious from promising monies to people only to basically tell "fuck off" instead of paying your responsible obligations. It's always easy to promise money, it's apparent that it's harder to ACTUALLY pay it out.

I know, I have to stop doing that.

remind me not to rent an apt to you.

...lol!!!!!

If school in US is like it is in Canada, the idea of safe sex WAS drilled into us. The message was repeated on TV, in the class, in our test-books and it continued well into college. All of that was thanks to massive government funding. There's the problem. It's easy to say that HIV is avoidable but, and I don't mean to be condecending here, but we're not dealing with people who go to class every day and study the scientific method.

In places where superstition is not challenged and education is rare, like Congo or Kansas, it takes someone to go and teach people what a condom is, how it's used, why it's necessary and so on. And more than that - the condoms have to be provided... someone whose kid is dying of malnutrition is not going to turn a trick for pennies and then spend those pennies on condoms. They're gonna spend it on other priorities. The condoms have to be produced, shipped, distributed.. all at a cost that the end user can't pay into.

And I'm not into pissing on the US over this. My country also got a good spanking by Sir. Bono himself on not meeting promised funding. Now the gov'ts changed and the Cons arent gonna honour the Liberal's promises. On Kyoto or on African aid.