Singer and political activist Bob Geldof, at a meeting of the British Labour Party, said that “monogamy, fidelity in marriage and abstinence are the most effective weapons to combat acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) — or rather, to ensure that the disease does not progress”.
On the 30th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS, the United Nations had stated that the means used to this day to counter AIDS have failed miserably.
Official data on the disease are staggering, with 33 million people dying from it over the last three decades.
Daily, the virus spreads to more than 7,000 people worldwide. To cope with AIDS, trillions in economic aid have been given to fight this social evil.
Meanwhile, US Republican Congressman Chris Smith has provided evidence on the success of African countries that practise abstinence and fidelity.
The US Department of State and the Department of Health and Human Services have acknowledged the measures of abstinence and fidelity in these programmes.
Smith noted that both attitudes have been important in tackling the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Uganda, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
According to the journal Science, the reduction of AIDS among Zimbabwean men between 17 and 29 years who practised abstinence and fidelity was 23 per cent. Among women aged 15 to 24, it was 49 per cent.
A US Senate committee agreed to increase the budget for programmes against HIV in Africa.
Perhaps the largest effort was awarded to the President of Uganda, who managed to change the people’s sexual behaviour to prevent AIDS.
Spanish writer Julian Marías noted that “the main cause of this disease is the lack of sex life standards, standards that have always existed and through which men have behaved human and made possible what is called civilisation”.
CLEMENTE FERRER,
Madrid, Spain