ABC message on HIV causes much confusion
Jan 23, 2007
HAVING seen the recurrent increase in the percentage of the HIV/AIDS scourge in Uganda, from a reported 6.1% to 6.7%, we need to ask ourselves what actually has gone wrong.
By Ambrose Nuwagira
HAVING seen the recurrent increase in the percentage of the HIV/AIDS scourge in Uganda, from a reported 6.1% to 6.7%, we need to ask ourselves what actually has gone wrong.
For years, Uganda has been looked at as one of the greatest and mighty warriors against the HIV scourge, with abstinence, be faithful or use of condoms (ABC) strategy receiving all due respect from many educators and health organizations.
A look at the ABC strategy generates some confusion because it seems to contradict it self. This strategy calls for the unmarried to abstain from sexual intercourse till marriage, the married to remain sexually faithful to one another, and “those that can’t abstain or remain faithful†to use condoms. These are two contradictory statements.
There is no way HIV/AIDS can crack the abstinent and the faithful in marriage, but the unreliability and the undependability of the condoms, brings a divergence of the message. After all, condoms do promote sexual promiscuity provided there is ‘some assurance’.
No one knows why the human values of honesty, respect, self-control, dignity, modesty and sexual morality have outrightly been abandoned and the human race has sunk to the status of animals that cannot control their primal urges. The ‘condom’ strategy brings out an element of compromise and a weakling which may break the shield against the scourge.
Almost 90% of all HIV/AIDS infections are contracted through sexual intercourse and this needs to be addressed without any compromise, just as some activist said that “you cannot fight a lion with a toothpick.â€
In agreement with the ‘no apologies’ slogan, the abstinence and be faithful (AB) strategy deals with premarital and respect to sexual activity which means that this strategy works for risk elimination, while the ‘condom’ strategy deals with risk reduction.
Statistics have it that 60% of the new HIV/AIDS infections were among the married people, which shows that there is a high rate of marital unfaithfulness and this is as a result of the notion that sex with whoever you come across, with or without commitment is both normal and desirable as long as there is mutual consent and is “protected.†To say the least, this is madness! Have human beings stooped to the level of goats?
The HIV positive people equally need the abstinence and be faithful (AB) strategy in order to avoid re-infections. This suggests another ideology — the ‘abstain, be faithful or be exposed to death.’ (ABD) strategy. Time has come when HIV/AIDS should be treated as an insurgency and the correct type of message should be preached or else the infection rates might reach alarming rates. There is a need for behavioural change beginning with change of attitude. We need to be more vigilant than ever before.
The ‘ABD’ strategy has to be adopted since condom use has revealed much lower rates of consistency, availability and correct use. Even with this, ‘condoms provide variable and in some cases minimal protection against some serious sexually transmitted diseases.
We need to break the vicious cycle of shame and start to call a spade a spade and not a small spoon just because we have people who have eye defects. All the guns right now should aim at attitude and moral change which would a big impact in this war.
If France can exist without Napoleon, then human beings too should be able to live without sex. It is too dangerous to accommodate an enemy in the camp just because he has promised peace talks. Let us wake up!
The writer is a member of Campus Alliance to Wipeout Aids (CAWA).
HAVING seen the recurrent increase in the percentage of the HIV/AIDS scourge in Uganda, from a reported 6.1% to 6.7%, we need to ask ourselves what actually has gone wrong.
For years, Uganda has been looked at as one of the greatest and mighty warriors against the HIV scourge, with abstinence, be faithful or use of condoms (ABC) strategy receiving all due respect from many educators and health organizations.
A look at the ABC strategy generates some confusion because it seems to contradict it self. This strategy calls for the unmarried to abstain from sexual intercourse till marriage, the married to remain sexually faithful to one another, and “those that can’t abstain or remain faithful†to use condoms. These are two contradictory statements.
There is no way HIV/AIDS can crack the abstinent and the faithful in marriage, but the unreliability and the undependability of the condoms, brings a divergence of the message. After all, condoms do promote sexual promiscuity provided there is ‘some assurance’.
No one knows why the human values of honesty, respect, self-control, dignity, modesty and sexual morality have outrightly been abandoned and the human race has sunk to the status of animals that cannot control their primal urges. The ‘condom’ strategy brings out an element of compromise and a weakling which may break the shield against the scourge.
Almost 90% of all HIV/AIDS infections are contracted through sexual intercourse and this needs to be addressed without any compromise, just as some activist said that “you cannot fight a lion with a toothpick.â€
In agreement with the ‘no apologies’ slogan, the abstinence and be faithful (AB) strategy deals with premarital and respect to sexual activity which means that this strategy works for risk elimination, while the ‘condom’ strategy deals with risk reduction.
Statistics have it that 60% of the new HIV/AIDS infections were among the married people, which shows that there is a high rate of marital unfaithfulness and this is as a result of the notion that sex with whoever you come across, with or without commitment is both normal and desirable as long as there is mutual consent and is “protected.†To say the least, this is madness! Have human beings stooped to the level of goats?
The HIV positive people equally need the abstinence and be faithful (AB) strategy in order to avoid re-infections. This suggests another ideology — the ‘abstain, be faithful or be exposed to death.’ (ABD) strategy. Time has come when HIV/AIDS should be treated as an insurgency and the correct type of message should be preached or else the infection rates might reach alarming rates. There is a need for behavioural change beginning with change of attitude. We need to be more vigilant than ever before.
The ‘ABD’ strategy has to be adopted since condom use has revealed much lower rates of consistency, availability and correct use. Even with this, ‘condoms provide variable and in some cases minimal protection against some serious sexually transmitted diseases.
We need to break the vicious cycle of shame and start to call a spade a spade and not a small spoon just because we have people who have eye defects. All the guns right now should aim at attitude and moral change which would a big impact in this war.
If France can exist without Napoleon, then human beings too should be able to live without sex. It is too dangerous to accommodate an enemy in the camp just because he has promised peace talks. Let us wake up!
The writer is a member of Campus Alliance to Wipeout Aids (CAWA).