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This is from the Christian New Service sent to me
by someone. My comments are at the end of the
article.
REH
Sexual Abstinence Behind Uganda's AIDS Success Story By Stephen Mbogo CNSNews.com Correspondent January 13, 2003 Nairobi, Kenya (CNSNews.com) - Some experts say the dramatic drop in HIV/AIDS infections in Uganda is proof that abstinence from sex is the best way to combat the deadly disease, especially in the world's hardest-hit area, sub-Saharan Africa. Infections in the East African country, which once had the highest rate in the world, have dropped from 30 percent of the population in the early 1990s to around 10 percent today. Although promotion of condom use has been a part of Uganda's HIV/AIDS prevention strategy, the concept of "True Love Awaits" - an abstinence-until-marriage program launched in 1994 and supported by schools and religious organizations - is credited with bringing down the infection rate. "Abstinence remains the best strategy, especially for the risk group aged 15-25 years," said Dorothy Kwenze, an HIV/AIDS activist in neighboring Kenya. "The concept has worked well for Uganda and can equally work for other African countries." According to a study by development experts Rand Stoneburner, Uganda's prevention model, used elsewhere, has the potential to reduce the AIDS rate in Africa's worst-stricken countries by 80 percent. Stoneburner, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiologist, says that is the same level of efficacy one might expect from an HIV vaccine. Uganda boasts the most successful HIV/AIDS prevention case in Africa to date, as it is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa where the incidence of HIV/AIDS has decreased substantially. Credit is partly attributed to President Yoweri Museveni, who came to power in 1986, restored political stability, and led an aggressive anti-AIDS campaign by encouraging HIV-testing, abstinence and the use of condoms. His government also invested heavily in training health workers, creating counseling networks and treating sexually transmitted diseases. "President Museveni has made it a point to speak out about AIDS at every opportunity, and he has made all of his ministers, not just his health minister, responsible and accountable for results," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powel said on World Aids Day last year. Powell said countries having the most success in the fight against AIDS were those whose leaders had been the most forthcoming about the disease, and who made sure that lifesaving information reached all of their people. Promotion of condom use is generally pushed by U.N. agencies, population control advocates and others, as the most effective way to combat AIDS. Reports by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health argue that the Uganda success story was partly due to use of condoms. On the other hand, Dr. Vinand Nantulya, an infectious disease specialist who helped advise Museveni, said Ugandans "really never took to condoms." The message that took hold was that young people, who are at a higher risk of being infected, should not have sex until marriage and then remain faithful to their single partner. The results, when they came, were remarkable by any measure. By 2001, the number of pregnant Ugandan women testing positive for HIV had fallen from 21.2 percent at the height of the epidemic in 1991 to 6.2 percent. By contrast, in Kenya the rate in 2001 was roughly 15 percent of pregnant women, while in Zimbabwe it stands at 32 percent and in Botswana at 38 percent of mothers-to-be. Rates continue to rise in each country. In some African countries, life expectancy has dropped over a single decade by as much as 10 years. Current estimates by UNAIDS, the United Nations AIDS agency, are that more than four million people are infected in sub-Saharan Africa while adult prevalence rate is 9 percent. In Zambia, for instance, it dropped from 52 years in 1990 to 40.5 years in 2000, according to the U.N. Children Fund. One in five Zambians are infected. The worst countries are believed to be Swaziland, where 38.6 percent of adults have HIV - a jump of four points in just one year - and Botswana, where the 38.8 percent of the adult population is infected. UNICEF spokesman Marc Vergara said recently the deepening levels of poverty in Africa are eroding families' ability to cope with the AIDS crisis. Extended families. which in the past took care of orphaned children, are no longer able to do so. In the sprawling city of Soweto outside Johannesburg, South Africa, it's reported that funeral directors are now holding services on weekdays because their schedules on the weekends - the traditional day to bury loved ones - are overbooked. Elsewhere in South Africa, in parts of Kwazulu-Natal province, AIDS victims are being buried upright because of a shortage of space in cemeteries. Send a Letter to the Editor about this article. I sent this letter to their editor: To the Webmaster,
I don't know you and therefore don't know why you
sent this post to me but I have taken the time to answer it. That is
my gift to you. If you want to answer then send me a copy via e-mail
and I will read it. I live a busy life and so answers are not
guaranteed since I am an entrepreneur and do not work on a guaranteed
salary. That means I cannot let down and must keep up daily or
I do not feed my family. Here is my comments and questions on what
you sent to me.
REH
Imagine the following:
1. You have a preacher who has a cold
sore on his mouth. Somehow he transfers that to his genitals
and comes down with one of the rare instances of herpes simplex I on his
genitals. Current research says that there is no safe time for
a man with any of the herpes to have relations since he can transfer the virus
even when he isn't showing a sore or when even, as in the case of some men, that
he is not even aware that he has caught the virus. Should he
A. Wear a condom to protect his wife?
B. abstain from sex for the rest of his life?
C. Trust God and do neither?
2. A young woman who is a virgin has had the
same thing happen as the virus has moved from the mouth to a genital cut caused
by her period. Should the men who court her:
A. be told about the illness which is
incurable?
B. should they upon being told never call her
again?
C. decide to marry but abstain from
sex.
D. decide to marry and use a condom unless trying
to have children in which case be very careful that no lesions are
showing.
3. Herpes causes birth defects in
children. Should the potential parents:
A. refuse to have children?
B. only have children via C section?
C. pledge a vow of celibacy and join a cloister?
I realize that these instances are rare, but the
incidence of HIV is relatively rare as well since there are so many diseases in
Africa that cause wasting, I am told that AIDS cases or immune system diseases
are much more prevalent and that many are not related to HIV. I'm
not a doctor so I will leave that to the medical profession.
I will say that if someone is a Virgin, I would
encourage them to remain so until they find the person that they feel they can
live a long productive life with as well as feel a genuine
affection. But that is only because of this
plague.
Personal relationships are difficult and there are
times when it is better to know what that entails before marriage than getting
married, having children and breaking up over their ignorance and
immaturity. But the middle of a plague calls for drastic
measures.
I will also say that the Christians and Christian
network has a shoddy record on this since they did not come out initially for
serious research in this plague when they thought it was the province of
homosexuals and drug users. Christians in Congress were the worst of
a sleazy lot on this. As a result America lost some of its
finest talent as the homosexual population was ravaged. I lost
many friends and students in this and I will never forgive the Congress for this
terrible action.
I am heterosexual, a husband and a father and I
encourage my child to be intelligent about this and I believe she
is. But serious knowledge about disease is a part of being
smart and the story about holes in latex condoms is just as likely to be in the
gloves that surgeons use to operate on HIV patients with scalpels and needles
that easily puncture those gloves. Should they
abstain? Of course not. But sexuality can be put
off in times of stress and probably should in most cases, however that does
not mean that condoms for medical purposes and for birth control should not be
used. My father who was a public school teacher taught me these
things when I was seven years old and they helped me throughout my
life. Education is the answer for most problems in life.
Being smart, knowing what you should do to be
reasonably safe, yes and even about that cold sore, can have implications
for the entire life of a person. I believe God meant for us to
enjoy our lives or he wouldn't have made these activities so
pleasurable. Common sense and a temperate nature is a good
thing to encourage, while on the other hand fairy tales about what constitutes a
life in marriage does little to help those who "saved themselves for their loved
one" only to find out that it was not what they expected or wanted out of
life. In short, life is complicated.
Any religion that does not take that into account
is not likely to reach beyond its adolescence. 2,000 years is
not long in the history of the world or humanity. If the
Middle Eastern Religions do not solve these problems in a humane way then
they will not survive because they will not be serving the spiritual growth
purpose that God gave humans in giving us the impulse to know the
Eternal in our living. Any religion that uses its doorway to
the Eternal to justify bad, sleazy and even immoral actions demeans that doorway
and eventually ruins it as a passage for souls to the Creator. Yes,
if you are bad then Jesus does get the credit. The teacher does get
the credit for the student.
Survival of each and every citizen of this nation
is the purpose that gives all of our religions meaning and purpose in the
greater good of society. That is why they get tax breaks and that is
why the people of the country generally support us. It matters not
what your motive is. It only matters why religion gets its
special tax bracket and any person giving a dollar can get up to 33 cents back
off his tax bill for contributing to religious institutions.
If we are not good for all of the people in ways that show wisdom, calm the
population and grow greater appreciation and compassion for differing traditions
then the end will be war and that will be the end of America and those religions
will have killed it. Adolescents are tough for parents and
some parents don't survive as their children feed on them in an attempt to grow
up. Once the parents die the children unfortunately miss the final
pay off: The parents meeting them at their graduation from
adolescence into adulthood and thus they never complete their
lives. That goes for religions as well.
There are four mountains to life, Christianity has climbed two. Let
us all pray for the next two.
Best to you and thanks for
the e-mail,
Ray Evans Harrell
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