PEPFAR has been reauthorized and though they revoked the clause allocating a minimum of 33% of resources on abstinence till marriage programmes, now 50% must be spent on abstinence, delay of sexual debut, fidelity and partner reduction in all countries with a generalised AIDS epidemic. Failure to comply may result in defunding. The previous American ABC (abstinence, be faithful, use condoms) strategy emphasised the use of condoms, but that was changed when they thought condoms conflicted with the first two parts of the strategy.

So the question lies: do ‘abstinence only’ and ‘be faithful’ programmes work?

People abstain till marriage and are faithful, but the same cannot be said of their spouses. More often than not it is the man who introduces the HIV virus. Once married, a woman must yield to sex when demanded and in many cultures simply does not have the power to convince her HIV positive husband to use condoms. Many individuals are forced to sell sex and such HIV prevention programmes are inadequate as they refuse to inform the public on how to protect themselves from the virus if so required. Aside from that, abstinence programmes are grossly misleading and have been proven not to work.

In India the only sexual contact 75% of HIV positive women have

had is with their husbands ~ Positive Women’s Network[i]

For more information visit:

· http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=how_bushs_aids_program_is_failing_africans

· http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/05/alterman_ignorance.html

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