Another incursion into wonderland from the Catholic Bishops in The Philippines following the decision by health Secretary Esperanza Cabral to reinvigorate campaigns promoting condom in a bid to stop the spread of a looming HIV and AIDS epidemic.
The Bishop requested from the government that manufacturers place warnings on condom like those in cigarettes, alcoholic drinks and herbal medicines. The suggested warning was
“Condoms may fail to protect from AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases.”
Cabral response was that it was a good idea and suggested the following warning
“Correct and consistent use of condom …

The french AIDES agency is at it again! Thanks to Elizabeth at Wisdom of Whores for spotting it.

Rating 3.00 out of 5

Just before “Treatment as Prevention” hit the headlines with some controversy, PrEP or Pre Exposure Prophylaxis, was on everybody’s lips.

PrEP is an experimental approach that would use antiretroviral medications (ARVs, which are normally used to treat people living with HIV) to reduce the risk of HIV infection in HIV-negative people. In this intervention, HIV-negative people would take a single drug or a combination of drugs with the hope that it would lower their risk of infection if exposed to HIV. PrEP trials are ongoing around the world. (Source: AVAC)

Whilst some …

Treatment as a means to prevent HIV infection has hit the media following a declaration by Brian Williams, professor of epidemiology at the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis in Stellenbosch, at the AAAS in San Diego.
Whilst the HIV epidemic has shown some signs of stabilisation in the recent years, more than 7,000 people are still infected every day with the virus that causes AIDS.
Despite interesting results of a vaccine trial in Thailand, prevention is still limited to a small number of options many of which are not …

In a recent posting at Aid Watch, William Easterly makes the very good point that we could help the poor more if we were to bypass dubious charitable scheme like Product Red. William Easterly points out that if you really want to support altruistic causes, you should do it directly rather than paying the business man and tipping the poor.

The question Easterly does not answer is why don’t we send our bucks or quids straight to the Global Fund instead of spending them at Starbucks?
Guilt, the one we feel knowing …