AIDS day

Nations Promote Awareness on AIDS Day
FATICK, Senegal - Schoolchildren in Senegal pledged to abstain from sex and village women in India cast off a veil of shame about their HIV status as World AIDS Day was marked Thursday around the globe.

"Our teacher told us that AIDS is a very dangerous disease," said 13-year-old Aissatou Niang, wearing a green Muslim headscarf. "Only abstinence can save us," she said as her schoolmates giggled nearby.
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In a speech in Washington, President Bush pledged to expand the AIDS prevention programs the United States funds in Africa and elsewhere around the world that emphasize abstinence as well as condom use.

Critics have said the programs stress abstinence at the expense of condom use, a dangerously unrealistic approach.

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Of course, abstinence is the safest approach, but to believe that people are not going to engage in sex is a perverted and dangerous view that will lead to many more deaths. We have to teach prevention and the proven fact that condoms, properly used, will prevent the disease.
As usual, information is the most powerful tool, and something that our administration seeks to keep from people.