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26.02.09
Condom Update
"Some 130,000 people, half of them women, live with the virus causing AIDS in Burkina Faso, one of the world's poorest countries.
Still, the west African country has managed to slice HIV infections from 7.4 percent in 1997 to two percent in 2005 -- partly thanks to more condom use, the United Nations said in a report last year."
- AFP
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"Q. There has been controversy surrounding the use of abstinence-only education in preventing HIV. Do you support it or do you think there are more effective methods?
A. Abstinence should be encouraged but, in fact, as the only way to deal with prevention, I don’t believe it will work. I think the reality is that people have to have other options. Condom use, the lack of sharing of needles, all these kinds of practices are just as important to get across. I think there’s been a lot of controversy with the [Bush Administration’s] view of abstinence. In some settings, they have taken the view that what abstinence-only means is that you really won’t embrace the role of condoms in dealing with the epidemic. Condoms prevent HIV so how can you not advocate informed and appropriate condom use in populations?"
- James A. Hoxie, director of the Penn Center for AIDS Research
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"One million male condoms on average are distributed in Khayelitsha every month.
This initiative of the City of Cape Town and NGOs working in the HIV and Aids sector has yielded fantastic results, says the city's health department.
Over a three-year period, the dramatic scaling up of condom distribution in Khayelitsha resulted in a 50 percent drop in the incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs)."
- www.iol.co.za (South Africa)
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"The Bush administration, driven by conservative political, social and religious elements in the USA, has mounted a concerted campaign to undermine the role of the condom in health-promotion activities in the USA and overseas by undervaluing and misrepresenting scientific data, and through a sustained and well-funded promotion of abstinence-only education. However, this has lead to considerable controversy and disillusionment with abstinence-only education, both at home and abroad, and there is now incontrovertible evidence that abstinence-only programs are ineffectual."
- Adrian Mindel and Shailendra Sawleshwarkar
Dall'abstract "Condoms for sexually transmissible infection prevention: politics versus science", pubblicato sulla rivista Sexual Health
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"Nicholas Muraguri, director of the National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Program in Kenia, said that the country's antiretroviral drug treatment program -- in which about 1.3 million people are enrolled -- would be challenged by the 55,000 to 100,000 new HIV cases being reported annually, primarily among married couples... Muraguri added that negligence is contributing to the spread of the virus among married couples. He said, "Most couples and partners tend to relax and fail to use condoms after entering into a new sexual relationship. ... This ends up fueling the spread of the disease since a majority of them do not know the HIV status of their partners"
- Kaisernetwork.org
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"Condom use among young women in Africa has been increasing -- a finding that could impact efforts to control the spread of HIV on the continent -- according to a study in the journal Lancet, by Mohamed Ali of the World Health Organization's department of reproductive health and research and John Cleland of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.... According to Cleland, if the increase in condom use 'continues or even accelerates, it's bound to make a dent on HIV transmission'."
- Medical News Today
Posted by mario at 26.02.09 22:52