Activists oppose Bush on AIDS

BANGKOK — President Bush’s policy of fighting AIDS by promoting abstinence ran into opposition yesterday from scientists and activists who touted condoms as the best weapon against the disease.

Rep. Barbara Lee, California Democrat, and other delegates speaking at the International AIDS Conference urged the world’s wealthiest countries to spend more on condoms and other HIV-fighting programs for the developing world.

“In an age where 5 million people are newly infected each year and women and girls too often do not have the choice to abstain, an abstinence-until-marriage program is not only irresponsible, it’s really inhumane,” said Mrs. Lee.

Proponents say there is no better way to prevent the spread of HIV than by using condoms and giving clean syringes to intravenous drug users. The Bush administration says that promoting condoms encourages sexual promiscuity among youths.

But Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni endorsed Washington’s so-called ABC policy — abstinence, being faithful and condoms, in that order.

Uganda has brought down its infection rate from more than 30 percent in the early 1990s to about 6 percent of the country’s 25 million people last year.

Mr. Museveni said loving relationships based on trust are crucial, and “the principle of condoms is not the ultimate solution.”

“In some cultures, sexual intercourse is so elaborate that condoms are a hindrance,” he told a plenary session. “Let the condom be used by people who cannot abstain, cannot be faithful or are estranged.”

Uganda’s successful battle against HIV is a rare success story for sub-Saharan Africa, although some health authorities say it is not clear how the success has been achieved. Mr. Museveni credits abstinence.

Condoms have been promoted as a front-line defense against AIDS by countries such as Thailand, where a campaign to get workers in the country’s sex trade to use condoms yielded a more than sevenfold reduction in HIV rates in 13 years.

In Asia, the sex trade has been the main engine behind infections in countries such as Thailand and Cambodia, where epidemics exploded by the late 1980s — sparking aggressive responses, including campaigns to boost condom use.

A young Ugandan, Simon Onaba, who gave an impassioned speech during the conference debate, said abstinence works if people have the will.

“It is possible for young people to abstain. We are motivated, we are empowered. If I can start having sex, I can also stop having sex,” he said.

There was consensus at the six-day conference, in its second day, that fighting the epidemic needs money that can come only from wealthier countries.

By 2005, an estimated $12 billion will be needed annually to fight the disease in developing countries, but current annual global spending amounts to less than $5 billion.