| ssj12 said: I have zero issue with this whole renouncing their faith thing. It is this little paragraph that annoys me: the latest last week when Pope Benedict XVI stirred global controversy on a trip to AIDS-ravaged Africa by saying condom use could further the spread of the disease. WTF was the Pope thinking? He seriously crossed so many lines with that massive line of BS. He just shows how useless he is. "Hand of God" my foot. More like fist of Satan. |
Even though the pope stated this is because of religious reasons. Studies have shown (I don't have time to cite them you can find them on africa-wide Nipad or AllAfrica.com) condom use would have to be almost universal and 80% of sexual encounters to reduce HIV prevalence - rates like this aren't achieved in the western world. Most experts agree that the two best ways to reduce prevalence is by circumcising men (reduces chances by 60% as evidenced by monitoring sero-discordant partners) and reducing the number of concurrent sexual partnerships (as evidenced by studies on Uganda and their prevalence reduction in all segments).
Like I said, even though he is probably saying this for religious reasons, he's spot on with most experts. In fact focusing on condom social marketing (they sell the condoms primarily) takes away from making behavioral changes.
For more info lookup: Sexual Network and multiple concurrent partnerships - on information and solid theories on why HIV africa has gotten so bad (this is typically exacerbated by migrant labor and the nature of interdependence in African kin groups)
