And The Band Still Plays On
AIDS, contrary to conventional wisdom, is still plaguing the world, especially in Africa and parts of the East. The problems receive scant attention when compared to such looming pandemics as Bird Flu (even though far more people die of AIDS than die of Bird Flu). The US isn't helping as much as it could, primarily because of some weird and unsound decisions made by Congress and the Bush administration, as an editorial in today's NY Times.
Programs to prevent the spread of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, are perhaps the most important tool in that long-term fight. Yet Congress specified that only 20 percent of the money could be spent on prevention, and one-third of that had to be used to promote abstinence until marriage. More money has been spent in that area than on other prevention activities, including distribution of condoms and blocking mother-to-child transmission.
We've seen how effective "abstinence until marriage" programs have worked out in the US, even though millions of tax dollars have been poured into such unrealistic nonsense, thanks to the efforts of the last Congress and such people as Wade Horn. Imposing that faux religious approach on countries where poverty is endemic has proven to be just as ineffective.
More than pharasaical moralism is involved, however.
Another restriction that existed even before the creation of Pepfar forbids the use of taxpayer money to give clean needles to injecting addicts, while a third requires that all antiretroviral medications be approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, even those already approved by the World Health Organization. [Emphasis added]
No doubt PHARMA had its hand in the drafting of such legislation, apparently feeling that its refusal to waive its patent rights on retroviral medications so that poor countries can afford to provide the intensive care required in HIV and AIDS by the use of generic medications just wasn't enough.
The results of such sanctimonious hypocrisy have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands men, women, and children, and there doesn't appear to be an end in sight.
Jesus wept.
As we all should.
Programs to prevent the spread of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, are perhaps the most important tool in that long-term fight. Yet Congress specified that only 20 percent of the money could be spent on prevention, and one-third of that had to be used to promote abstinence until marriage. More money has been spent in that area than on other prevention activities, including distribution of condoms and blocking mother-to-child transmission.
We've seen how effective "abstinence until marriage" programs have worked out in the US, even though millions of tax dollars have been poured into such unrealistic nonsense, thanks to the efforts of the last Congress and such people as Wade Horn. Imposing that faux religious approach on countries where poverty is endemic has proven to be just as ineffective.
More than pharasaical moralism is involved, however.
Another restriction that existed even before the creation of Pepfar forbids the use of taxpayer money to give clean needles to injecting addicts, while a third requires that all antiretroviral medications be approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, even those already approved by the World Health Organization. [Emphasis added]
No doubt PHARMA had its hand in the drafting of such legislation, apparently feeling that its refusal to waive its patent rights on retroviral medications so that poor countries can afford to provide the intensive care required in HIV and AIDS by the use of generic medications just wasn't enough.
The results of such sanctimonious hypocrisy have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands men, women, and children, and there doesn't appear to be an end in sight.
Jesus wept.
As we all should.
posted by Diane at 3:38 AM
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