"...it hurts...some days are good days but lately my babies [aborted two] have been on my mind an awful lot. I guess because one of their birthdays would have been this month or next month. I don’t even know for sure how far along I was. The guilt just really hurts worse some days..."
[the words of a woman who experienced abortion 20 and 16 years ago]
Abortion is forever...
July 2008: Life Matters
Death Toll Linked to Gardasil Vaccine Rises
Cervarix Approval On Hold
Pro-Life Site Will Point Pregnant Women to Parenting, Adoption
Planned Parenthood's Racial Profiling May Move On
NEW! Trying to Look Slick, Planned Parenthood Comes Off Greasy
NEW! 40 Days for Life Prepares for Largest Pro-Life Mobilization in History
NEW! Investigating Allegations of Possible Inappropriate Financial Ties:
Senator Demands Records of Psychiatric Association-Drug Industry Fiscal Ties
To AIDS Profiteers: Let My People Go...
[A journal of articles related to Gardasil & Cervarix may be found by clicking "Current Headlines" in the left menu, then clicking "Vaccines", or by clicking here or here .]
DEATH TOLL LINKED TO GARDASIL VACCINE RISES: Complications include shock, 'foaming at mouth,' convulsions, coma. "Anaphylactic shock," "foaming at mouth," "grand mal convulsion," "coma" and "now paralyzed" are a few of the startling descriptions included in a new federal report describing the complications from Merck & Co.'s Gardasil medication for sexually transmitted human papillomavirus – which has been proposed as mandatory for all schoolgirls.
The document was obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by Judicial Watch, a Washington group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, and it has details of 10 deaths just since September.
"Given all the questions about Gardasil, the best public health policy would be to re-evaluate its safety and to prohibit its distribution to minors. In the least, governments should rethink any efforts to mandate or promote this vaccine for children,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
The organization's work uncovered reports of about one death each month since last fall, bringing the total death toll from the drug to at least 18 and as many as 20. There also were 140 "serious" reports of complications including about three dozen classified as life-threatening, 10 spontaneous abortions and half a dozen cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
The document reveals the case of an 18-year-old woman who got the Gardasil vaccine, was found unconscious that evening, and died. Another woman, age 19, got the drug and the next morning was found dead in her bed.
The new documents also reveal a total of 8,864 Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System records, up from a total of 3,461 that had been reported in a document just last fall.
WND previously has reported how Merck was lobbying state lawmakers to require the vaccination, but said it would quit the campaign after its activities were unveiled.
WND also reported when a key researcher into human papillomavirus, which is targeted by Gardasil, reported it needed more testing, and how even the Centers for Disease Control suggested the vaccine should not be mandatory.
That, however, has not diverted the building campaign to have legislatures adopt mandatory vaccination plans.
Judicial Watch said one of the reports, VAERS ID: 310262-1 (D), had this to say:
"Information has been received…concerning a 20-year-old female with no medical history reported, who on 01-APR-2008 was vaccinated with a dose of Gardasil….The patient died four days after…patient sought unspecified medical attention. An autopsy was performed which ruled out suicide and anything suspicious."
Another report said, "Information has been received from a physician concerning a female patient who on an unknown date was vaccinated with a dose of Gardasil. Subsequently, the patient experienced a coma and is now paralyzed. At the time of this report, the patient's outcome was unknown. VAERS ID: 303188-1"
The target of the vaccine is cervical cancer, since studies show that those who have HPV have a higher chance of later developing cervical cancer. However, opponents note that such cancers develop most often in older women, while the plan is to require girls as young as 11 or 12 years old to be inoculated. They cite the lack of evidence that the vaccine would have an impact later in life.
A Judicial Watch report said, "Even though Gardasil will not be fully tested for safety until 2009, physicians are already pushing it as a routine, harmless vaccine. Merck's aggressive advertisement campaign tells young girls that their lives could be 'one less' affected by cervical cancer and that, 'It's your turn to help guard against cervical cancer.'"
The report also estimated it will cost as much as $2 billion to buy vaccinations for the nation's poorest girls.
"This vaccine will be more expensive than all other childhood vaccines put together," concluded John Schiller, a National Cancer Institute investigator.
Judicial Watch earlier uncovered reports such as this:
"Initial and follow-up information has been received from a physician concerning an 'otherwise healthy' 13 year old female who was vaccinated with her first and second doses of Gardasil. Subsequently, the patient experienced … paralysis from the chest down, lesions of the optic nerve…At the time of the report, the patient had not recovered."
Officials with the Abstinence Clearinghouse noted in a position paper that groups including the Texas Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and the American Academy of Environmental Medicine have come out publicly against mandatory vaccination.
"The reasoning of these medical associations is clear. They are not opposed to medical progress, and certainly support all efforts to combat life-threatening diseases. The problem, as these organizations see it, lies in the fact that the drug only went through three and a half years of testing, leaving the medical community somewhat in the dark as to what serious adverse effects might result in the long term," the group said at the time.
"Along with the potential of serious adverse effects is the question of efficacy. There is evidence that after approximately four years, the vaccine's potency significantly declines. The long-term value of the vaccine has yet to be determined; if it wears off within six years, will girls and women need to repeat the battery of injections they originally received?" the organization wondered.
Michigan was the first state to introduce a plan to require the vaccine to be given to young girls, but the proposal failed. Ohio also considered a failed plan in 2006.
In 2007 Merck's aggressive lobbying campaign and contributions to Women in Government resulted in proposals in at least 39 states to institutionalize such vaccinations.
[June 30, 2008, WorldNetDaily, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=68454]
Judicial Watch Special Report: Examining The FDA's HPV Vaccine Records: Executive Summary
(See full report at:
In May 2007, Judicial Watch submitted a request to the FDA under the Freedom of Information Act for all records concerning Merck's new anti-HPV vaccine, Gardasil.
After Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit in October 2007 to compel record production, the FDA finally released four sets of documents, the last in June 2008. These records detail the development and expedited approval of Gardasil.
The documents include patent and licensing memoranda, test reports for the vaccine, and the final briefing document on Gardasil submitted to the FDA in April 2006, one month before the vaccine was approved.
The FDA also produced 8,864 VAERS reports. Judicial Watch uncovered a transcript of Merck's May 18, 2006, meeting with the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), at which the vaccine received a unanimous vote of approval.Analysis of the records shows:
. Gardasil is a prophylactic, preventative vaccine and will not treat pre-existing HPV infection. It is not a cancer vaccine or cure.
. Gardasil is marketed as a vaccine that prevents cancer, but it " . . . has not been evaluated for the potential to cause carcinogenicity or genotoxicity."
. Gardasil is not 100% effective against all HPVs. It is designed to protect against only four strains of HPV, even though there are over thirty strains including at least fifteen that can cause cancer.
. While Gardasil is the most expensive vaccine ever to be recommended by the FDA, its long-term effectiveness is unknown and could be as brief as only two to three years.
. During testing, an aluminum-containing placebo was used. Aluminum can cause permanent cell damage and is a reactive placebo, unlike most standard saline placebos. This means that tests of Gardasil may not have given an accurate picture of safety levels.
. Although some states are considering making it mandatory for young girls to get the Gardasil vaccine, it has only been tested with one other vaccine commonly given to children. There are ten commonly administered adolescent vaccines.
. Gardasil is still in the testing stages, and will not be fully evaluated for safety until September 2009.
VAERS reports show that as many as eighteen people have died after receiving Gardasil.
See full report:
http://www.judicialwatch.org/documents/2008/JWReportFDAhpvVaccineRecords.pdf
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NB: GSK announced yesterday that their HPV vaccine, Cervarix, will be delayed in the US until sometime in late 2009 due to less than stellar results submitted to the FDA...
ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION
Promoting Openness, Full Disclosure, and Accountability
http://www.ahrp.org and http://ahrp.blogspot.com
FYI
***Though approved for marketing by the FDA in May 2006, Merck's HPV vaccine, Gardasil, is still in the testing stages, and will not be fully evaluated for safety until September 2009.
Gardasil gained FDA approval under a fast track process--within 6 months of testing. Fast-track approval is a process reserved for life-saving products with the potential to fill an unmet medical need, such as, new cancer treatments or AIDS drugs.
A special report issued by Judicial Watch, "Examining the FDA's HPV Vaccine Records: Detailing the Approval Process, Side-Effects, Safety Concerns and Marketing Practices of a Large-Scale Public Health Experiment" is (June 30, 2008) shows that aggressive lobbying by Merck--rather than medical need backed by scientific data--led the FDA to approve Gardasil before adequate testing for safety had been completed.
The report is a MUST READ for every parent considering vaccinating a daughter with Merck's papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil. The report should be required reading for every public health official and policy maker.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/documents/2008/JWReportFDAhpvVaccineRecords.pdf
Thousands of documents were obtained by Judicial Watch after filing a lawsuit against the FDA. The documents include Merck's patent and drug information submitted to the
FDA, transcripts and briefing material from approval meetings, and reports documenting health, safety, and efficacy test results, as well as Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) documents.
VAERS reports provide details about 8,864 cases of adverse effects experienced by girls and women after receiving the Gardasil vaccine. Since January 2008, the FDA identified 140 as "serious" reports (27 were categorized as "life threatening"), 10 spontaneous abortions and 6 cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome . VAERS reports show that at least eighteen people have died after receiving Gardasil. See adverse effect reports submitted to VAERS: http://www.judicialwatch.org/gardasil
Adverse report excerpts include:
* Information has been received...concerning a 20 year old female with no medical history reported, who on 01-APR-2008 was vaccinated with a dose of Gardasil....The patient died four days after...patient sought unspecified medical attention. An autopsy was performed which ruled out suicide and anything suspicious. The cause of death is currently unknown. VAERS ID: 310262-1 (D)
* Information has been received.concerning a 23-year-old female.who on 31-JAN-2008 was vaccinated with her 1st dose of Gardasil...the patient experienced anaphylactic shock 2 minutes after vaccination characterized by a brief loss of consciousness...respiratory arrest, eyes rolled upwards, blurred vision and greyish skin tone...Anaphylactic shock was considered to be immediately life-threatening. VAERS ID: 304739-1 (S)
* Cold sweat, Fall, Foaming at mouth, Grand mal convulsion, Immediate post-injection reaction....Pt [patient, 14-year-old female] received vaccine, took 6 steps, fell to the ground unconscious and had a 60 sec grand mal seizure then regained consciousness. [Blood pressure] after seizure 60/40 pale clammy skin. [Patient] had bit her tongue and had foam around her mouth. VAERS ID: 305259-1 (S)
* Information has been received from a physician concerning a female patient who on an unknown date was vaccinated with a dose of Gardasil. Subsequently, the patient experienced a coma and is now paralyzed. At the time of this report, the patient's outcome was unknown. VAERS ID: 303188-1
Most health officials believe that adverse reactions to medications are vastly underreported, as they are optional. Safety experts estimate that only between 1% and 10% of adverse effects are reported. Therefore the actual number of adverse events occurring after vaccination with Gardasil is likely to be much higher.
Based on the reports submitted to the VAERS database, Gardasil is demonstrably a risk-laden vaccine.
Even without Gardasil, cervical cancer deaths have decreased drastically in the past several decades. The American Cancer Society estimates that deaths from cervical cancer declined 74% between 1955 and 1992, and that the rate continues to decrease by about 4% each year.
Since condoms are indisputably a safe, non-invasive, cost-effect method for protecting boys and girls / men and women against ALL sexually transmitted diseases -- Why are we exposing American girls and young women to a public health experiment whose benefits are unclear while its risks include death ?
Below is the Executive Summary of Judicial Watch's special report.
Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav
212-595-8974
Pro-Life Site Will Point Pregnant Women to Parenting, Adoption
The Rev. Rod Parsley, pastor of World Harvest Church, has founded a center on the East Side to try to prevent women from having abortions. The Women's Clinic of Columbus, at 3242 E. Main St., was purposely planted across the street from a Planned Parenthood location, said Debbie Stacy, the director of Parsley's Center for Moral Clarity and a board member of the new nonprofit organization.
Above the Planned Parenthood of Central Ohio Women's Center at 3255 E. Main St., there's a billboard picturing a woman in a lab coat that reads "Positive You're Pregnant? We Can Help! Across the Street Free Ultrasounds."
[http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/faith_values/stories/2008/06/27/whclinic.ART_ART_06-27-08_B8_F3AIQ2B.html?sid=101, Columbus Dispatch; ALL Pro-Life Today 27June08]
Planned Parenthood's Racial Profiling May Move On To Profit Profiling http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idarticle=15584Spero NewsNow, according to a lengthy profile in the Wall Street Journal, America's pre-eminent marketer of the culture of meaninglessness, Planned Parenthood, plans to help expedite this process and is retooling to go beyond targeting poor blacks to reach out to all Americans.
The article, "Extending the brand: Planned Parenthood Hits Suburbia," discusses how the organization is mobilizing its now-considerable resources – a $1 billion dollar budget, with a reported $100 million-plus surplus – to build glitzy new multimillion-dollar centers and express outlets in malls – to reach women of means and everyone else.[ALL Pro-Life Today, 30June08]
Trying to Look Slick, Planned Parenthood Comes Off Greasy
By Phil Eddy
A Planned Parenthood business in Indiana is [starting to] promote adoption.
Yes, you heard that right: A Planned Parenthood business in Indiana – part of the nationwide chain that sells 120 abortions for every single adoption it pushes – is just now starting to promote adoption.
This is something that thousands of pro-life pregnancy resource centers have been offering for free for decades.
The Post-Tribune of Northwestern Indiana reports:
The Planned Parenthood clinic [sic] in Merrillville recently established a new program that should further distance itself from an image fostered by critics who claim its prime function is performing abortions.
This week, the clinic [sic] became the third in Indiana to offer free services promoting adoption. The clinic [sic] joins a handful of centers nationwide in offering on-site counselors from a local adoption agency.
"Our mission is to provide women with options, to give them information so they can make good decisions for themselves and their families," said Liz Carroll, vice president of patient services for Planned Parenthood of Indiana.
Of course we are always supportive of adoption as an option and one of the pro-life movement's greatest legacies is the multitude of children adopted by pro-life families.
However, that is not the issue here. What we see here is Planned Parenthood confirming what we've known for years: They weren't actively promoting adoption as an option in their counseling sessions and are now trying to remedy that with a slick PR move.
It's not difficult to promote adoption. Yes, having a counselor from an adoption agency on-site can help, but Planned Parenthood doesn't need that in order to promote adoption over abortion. It's like someone saying, "We now have a maid, so our floors will now be vacuumed." You don't need a professional to do something like this.
If Planned Parenthood is claiming that it can now promote adoption because it has an on-site counselor from an adoption agency, wouldn't that imply that any other Planned Parenthood business that doesn't have one is failing to offer a true variety of choices, and therefore can be labeled pro-abortion?
We have heard reports from pregnant women who have been to Planned Parenthood businesses that they can be heavy handed in their "counseling" sessions, attempting to steer women towards abortion.
This is just another attempt by Planned Parenthood's media spin team to cleanse a dirty image – instead they just draw attention to the organization's spotty record.
http://www.all.org/newsroom_allblog_response.php?id=2261 [ALL Pro-Life Today, 18 July 08]
40 DAYS FOR LIFE. “Cities across America are applying to participate in the fall 2008 nationally coordinated 40 Days for Life campaign – a focused initiative that promises to be the largest and longest coordinated pro-life mobilization in history,” said David Bereit, national campaign director of 40 Days for Life.
“Abortion claims more than 1.2 million innocent lives in the United States each year,” he added, “and in 2008, the stakes for our nation are higher than ever. People of faith and conscience are approaching this challenge with a heightened sense of urgency.”
40 Days for Life is a community-based campaign that features 40 days of prayer and fasting, round-the-clock peaceful vigil outside an abortion business, and grassroots educational outreach.
Simultaneous campaigns will be conducted coast-to-coast – and internationally – as part of a unified outreach from September 24 through November 2. Local pro-life leaders are now applying to host 40 Days for Life campaigns in their cities this fall. The application period continues until July 29.
The organizers of the 40 Days for Life campaign have energized pro-life advocates across the country and seen abortion centers close in the process. Yet, the Fall 2008 campaign, leading up to the important presidential elections, could be the group's largest yet.
“The rapid expansion of this effort has exceeded our wildest expectations,” said Bereit. “As shown on the map on the 40 Days for Life web site, more than 300 cities across America, and in four other countries, have already stepped forward and expressed interest in the fall campaign. People are eager to get started.”
This fall’s effort will mark the third nationally coordinated 40 Days for Life campaign.
In previous efforts in 139 cities across 43 states, 150,000 people have responded to the call for prayer and fasting.
Over 35,000 have prayed outside abortion facilities and Planned Parenthood centers. More than 500 unborn children have been confirmed saved from abortion. Abortion workers have quit their jobs and left the industry and two abortion facilities that were the sites of 40 Days for Life prayer vigils – in Dallas, Texas, and Rockland County, New York – have gone out of business.
Said Bereit, “This clearly demonstrates the importance of maintaining a regular, prayerful presence outside abortion facilities where the lives of the unborn are at risk. The call to participate in 40 Days for Life is a call to sacrifice. It’s a call that people of faith are taking very seriously. We can’t wait to see what is in store for America this fall!”
Related web sites:
40 Days for Life - http://www.40daysforlife.com
Promotion -- Television Program Friday, July 25, 2008 http://www.beinghumanshow.com/documents/BH%20Episode%20II%20B&W%20Flyer.pdf [15July08, D.C., www.40daysforlife.com]
Investigating Possible Inappropriate Financial Ties...
SENATOR DEMANDS RECORDS OF PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION - DRUG INDUSTRY FISCAL TIES. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has widened his investigation of psychiatrists' links to pharmaceutical companies to include years of financial records from the American Psychiatric Association.
Action Points
* Explain to interested patients that the American Psychiatric Association was asked to provide financial records as part of a Senate probe of ties to pharmaceutical companies.
* Explain that no wrongdoing by the group has been alleged.
In a letter sent to the APA, Sen. Grassley asked the group for "a complete accounting of APA revenues, except those from advertising in [APA] journals, from pharmaceutical companies starting in 2003," the APA said.
The request follows probes earlier this spring by Sen. Grassley, the ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee, into pharmaceutical company payments to individual psychiatrists.
One of the targets was Alan F. Schatzberg, M.D., of Stanford University, who is the APA's current president-elect. Grassley had accused Dr. Schatzberg of failing to disclose payments totalling some $74,000 from Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly in filings with Stanford.
Stanford responded with a statement saying that Sen. Grassley was wrong and that Dr. Schatzberg had indeed reported the payments.
The senator had also highlighted Dr. Schatzberg's ownership of about $6 million in stock in a company called Corcept Therapeutics, which seeks to commercialize mifepristone (Mifeprex, also known as the abortifacient drug RU-486) as a treatment for depression.
The Stanford statement said Dr. Schatzberg had reported the interest and the university had taken steps "to ensure that his research was not compromised by this financial stake."
Among them was Dr. Schatzberg's agreement not to participate in any clinical research involving mifepristone and depression, even though he is listed as principal investigator of a current NIH-funded trial of the drug in acute psychotic depression.
Grassley also accused two Harvard-affiliated psychiatrists, Joseph Biederman, M.D., and Timothy Wilens, M.D., as well as Melissa DelBello, M.D., of the University of Cincinnati, of failing to report pharma company payments to their institutions.
Both universities are investigating the allegations.
The APA reported that pharmaceutical companies provided 29% of $62.5 million in revenues in 2006, the most recent year for which financial data were available.
Some 15% is from advertising in APA journals and exhibits at the annual meeting. Another 8% is unrestricted funding for research fellowships and resident conferences, and 6% is from industry-supported symposia at the annual meeting.
The APA reported netting about $3.7 million from the pharmaceutical funding, after expenses for these activities.
In an email sent to members last week, current APA president Nada Stotland, M.D., said the group's board of trustees had begun a review in March of its revenues from the pharmaceutical industry.
"A working group [was] charged to review all APA pharmaceutical revenues, sort them into categories, and provide the board with options for ending pharmaceutical support in each category and the implications for the activities they currently fund," she wrote.
The APA said Dr. Schatzberg would take over the presidency as scheduled.
Psychiatrists were also targeted last week by the Vermont state attorney general, who issued a report on pharmaceutical industry payments to doctors in the state.
Of the top 100 recipients, 11 were psychiatrists. They accounted for 20% of all monies paid to Vermont physicians.
Vermont law requires pharmaceutical companies to report payments to physicians for marketing purposes, including the specific drug products involved.
Consulting and speaking fees, travel expenses, and other direct payments were counted. Exempted were free samples, rebates and discounts, compensation for bona fide clinical-trial work, and items worth less than $25.
The attorney general's report found that six of the 10 most heavily marketed drugs involving physicians were neuropsychiatric products: the attention deficit drugs atomoxetine (Strattera) and methylphenidate (Metadate), the antidepressants escitolapram (Lexapro) and duloxetine (Cymbalta), the antipsychotic drug quetiapine (Seroquel), and the Alzheimer treatment memantine (Namenda).
All told, 84 companies paid $3.14 million to Vermont physicians. The top 100 recipients accounted for 68% of the total.
Additional source: Vermont Attorney General's Office
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/GeneralPsychiatry/tb/10117
[14 July 2008, By John Gever, Staff Writer, MedPage Today, Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, WASHINGTON; PharmFacts E-News Update, 15 Jul 2008 ]
AIDS IN UGANDA: LET MY PEOPLE GO, AIDS PROFITEERS! The President's Emergency Plan for HIV-AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been mired in the Senate for months. Last week finally brought signs that a vote, and passage, could be near. The program would cost $50 billion -- that's $165 from each American to fight AIDS, or $1.3 billion from New York City alone.
But will the money allocated for AIDS stop the spread of the virus in sub-Saharan Africa, where 76 percent of the world's HIV-AIDS deaths occurred last year?
Not if the dark dealings I've witnessed in Africa continue unchecked. In the fight against AIDS, profiteering has trumped prevention. AIDS is no longer simply a disease; it has become a multibillion-dollar industry.
In the late 1980s, before international experts arrived to tell us we had it all "wrong," we in Uganda devised a practical campaign to prevent the spread of HIV.
We recognized that population-wide AIDS epidemics in Africa were driven by people having sex with more than one regular partner.
Therefore, we urged people to be faithful.
Our campaign was called ABC (Abstain, or Be Faithful, or use Condoms), but our main message was: Stick to one partner. We promoted condoms only as a last resort.
Because we knew what to do in our country, we succeeded. The proportion of Ugandans infected with HIV plunged from 21 percent in 1991 to 6 percent in 2002.
But international AIDS experts who came to Uganda said we were wrong to try to limit people's sexual freedom. Worse, they had the financial power to force their casual-sex agendas upon us.
PEPFAR calls for Western experts to work as equal partners with African leaders on AIDS prevention.
But as co-chair of Uganda's National AIDS-Prevention Committee, I have seen this process sabotaged.
Repeatedly, our 25-member prevention committee put faithfulness and abstinence into the National Strategic Plan that guides how PEPFAR money for our country will be spent.
Repeatedly, foreign advisers erased our recommendations. When the document draft was published, fidelity and abstinence were missing.
And somehow, a suspicious statistic attacking marriage appeared. The plan states that the HIV infection rate among married couples is 42 percent, twice as high as the rate among prostitutes.
Our requests for the source of this statistic were repeatedly ignored.
In fact, the 2004-05 Ugandan HIV/AIDS Sero-Behavioral Survey found that HIV prevalence among married couples is only 6.3 percent, far lower than infection rates among widowed (31.4 percent) or divorced (13.9 percent) Ugandans.
When Washington insiders were alerted to these scandals, the words "abstain" and "be faithful" were quietly reinserted into the plan -- on paper. But that doesn't guarantee these methods will be implemented or promoted. Meanwhile, the dubious marriage statistic remains.
As fidelity and abstinence have been subverted, Uganda's HIV rates have begun to tick back up.
Western media have been told this renewed surge of HIV infection is because there are "not enough condoms in Uganda," even though we have many more condoms now than we did in the early 1990s, when our HIV rates began to decline.
Condom promotions have failed in Africa, mostly because fewer than 5 percent of people use condoms consistently with regular partners.
Indeed, the loudest HIV-prevention message in Africa is "universal access" to condoms, testing, anti-retroviral treatment, and assorted other drugs and devices. All these commodities must be transported, stored, distributed, advertised and resupplied endlessly.
Meanwhile, effective HIV prevention methods, such as urging Africans to stick to one partner, don't qualify for lucrative universal-access status.
Do not misunderstand me: Treatment is good. But for every African who gains access to HIV treatment, six become newly infected.
To treat one AIDS patient with life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs costs more than $1,000 a year.
Our successful ABC campaign cost just 29 cents per person each year.
International suppliers make broad, oversimplified statements such as "You can't change Africans' sexual behavior."
While it's true that you can't change everybody, you don't have to.
If the share of men having three or more sexual partners in a year drops from 15 percent to 3 percent, as happened in Uganda between 1989 and 1995, HIV infection rates will plunge. It is that simple.
We, the poor of Africa, remain silenced in the global dialogue.
Our wisdom about our own culture is ignored.
Telling men and women to keep sex sacred -- to save sex for marriage and then remain faithful -- is telling them to love one another deeply with their whole hearts.
Most HIV infections in Africa are spread by sex outside of marriage: casual sex and infidelity. The solution is faithful love.
So hear my plea, HIV-AIDS profiteers. Let my people go.
We understand that casual sex is dear to you, but staying alive is dear to us.
Listen to African wisdom, and we will show you how to prevent AIDS. The Rev. Sam L. Ruteikara is co-chair of Uganda's National AIDS-Prevention Committee.
[30June 2008; A11, Washington Post, KAMPALA, Uganda, by Sam L. Ruteikara www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/29/AR2008062901477.html]
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