The ABCs of AIDS Prevention

Common sense is on the run, again:

In a story published right after Pope John Paul II died earlier this year, the British New Statesman proclaimed that he "did more to spread AIDS in Africa than prostitution and the trucking industry combined." F.Y.I., John Paul said: "fidelity within marriage and abstinence outside are the only sure ways to limit the further spread of AIDS infection."

Excuse my simplemindedness, but that seems like exactly the pill Africa needs. And you don't have to take the Vatican's word for it. Throwing condoms at the problem has simply not worked in Africa. Fidelity and abstinence, where it has been tried — most notably in Uganda — seems to give people a fighting chance, as it logically would.

Edward Green, senior research scientist at the Harvard Center for Population and Developmental Studies, is an expert on the "ABC" approach to AIDS prevention: "Abstain; Be Faithful; Use Condoms."

Don't have sex if you're not married; be true to your spouse if you are married; use a condom as a last resort as Green explains in his book Rethinking AIDS Prevention, Learning from Successes in the Developing World. Uganda has embraced this approach and the standout results present a model for attacking the African pandemic. Between 1991 and 2001, HIV infection rates went from about 15 percent to 5 percent. In Kampala, the country's capital, HIV among pregnant women dropped from 30 percent to 10 percent.

How? Uganda's president blanketing the country in ABC education. Premarital sex rates went down, for one — something Western elites rarely consider possible, here or abroad.

You mean education and behavior change might go further than Bill Gates airlifting condoms into Africa? Teach a man to respect himself and the women around him, and you might just be en route to putting a dent into a pandemic. And you don't have to be pope to realize that.

Unfortunately, the ABC approach may not spread and flourish, even in Uganda. Because of "conventional wisdom of the world," major donors to Africa do not favor the A and the B of it. According to Green, "If you look at the current national Strategic Framework for HIV/AIDS, which is a blueprint for all the activities supported in Uganda to combat AIDS, you will see that there are virtually no A or B elements there. The document is all about condoms, STDs, future vaccines, future microbicides and testing."

This approach reflects the attitudes the major donors like. In fact, the word abstinence appears only twice in the body of this 77-page document, but only as part of a general approach — there are no specific objectives or impact measures associated with A or B interventions." That remarkable turnaround in Uganda is in danger of reversing course due to Western ways. Despite the successful evidence, some Westerners are wedded to their tried-and-failing ways, putting that remarkable turnaround in danger and holding the rest of Africa (among others) back.

Large donors and popular voices like Elton John seem to think you must give the Third World inhabitants condoms because you can't keep them from promiscuity. That insulting attitude does Africans a deadly disservice. People deserve to know they have alternatives in life to risky sex.

Sneering condescension, of course, is the bloody heart of Leftist politics. Well, at least when envy's not in the driver's seat.