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 …

Lost Decade Gays

It used to be simple: there were the Gay ones and the Rest (though the Rest would have said that “there was us and the Gay guy next door”). But starting at the end of the “sleepy 50s” to climax by the end of the “Glorious 30s” (1945-1975), a sexual revolution had happened and had revealed a world of sexualities.
It was no coincidence that the “Lost Decade” (1980-1990) inaugurated by the abandon of state-led development policies in favour of Neo-liberalism was also the starting point of the tragic …

And would alternative policies deliver in the fight against HIV/AIDS?
This is what Rick Rowden, Senior Policy Analyst at ActionAid International USA, puts forward in his book “The Deadly Ideas of Neoliberalism: How the IMF has Undermined Public Health and the Fight Against AIDS”.

I have not read the book yet but went to the recent UK launch organised by the publisher Zed at the SOAS in London. I can only report on my first impressions about the thesis that IMF policies, by constraining and limiting health policies and budgets in poor …

In an article posted on LifeLube, Charles Stephens wonders what oral prevention and rectal microbicides, amongst others, might mean for HIV prevention and pleasure, risk and taboo.
As “condom-centric” prevention interventions are failing (the intervention, not the condom), hope and expectations are high that other prevention strategies such as PrEP and microbicides could succeed where condoms are failing. However, discussion and debate are rife around these interventions and they are important because we need to think ahead about how they will affect our sexual behaviour.
The problem is “how” to think these …

Ivory Coast Campaign
(Click to enlarge)

A few days ago Elizabeth Pisani commented on her website on how the Cambodian government caved in to US pressure. US pro-abstinence ideologues were meddling with a recognised efficacious HIV prevention intervention in exchange for economic advantages.
This was an interesting post and it fitted with one of the main theme explored in Elizabeth’s book, i.e. how ideology can take over epidemiology and surveillance data when it comes to designing HIV prevention programme.
Interestingly, in a Washington Post column, Rev. Sam L. Ruteikara, co-chair of Uganda’s …