Several clinical trials have demonstrated the benefit of circumcision in reducing the risk of HIV infection. One of the explanations put forward is that the foreskin is rich in a particular type of cell the HIV virus likes to infect. By getting rid of the foreskin, the risk of HIV infection is reduced.
If this is true then the size of the foreskin should matter too, with a higher risk of HIV infection for those with a larger foreskin than those with a smaller one. This is exactly what a new …

From Entebbe, Uganda – The New Vision, a Uganda daily, has been a never-ending source of inspiration all week and today was no exception with the publication of two articles on bride’s and groom’s virginity at the time of tying the knot.
In all societies and since time immemorial, the bride’s virginity has been praised, sought and defended until the last minute. What was interesting in today’s articles is that they are mostly about the bride’s virginity and how important it is for the groom. Thought the second article is about …

From Entebbe, Uganda – “A man shocked parents on Sunday when he confessed to recruiting school children into homosexuality to promote the practice in Ugandan schools.”
Hence started the opening paragraph of a front page feature of the Ugandan daily The New Vision under a 5-cm letter header: “HOMOSEXUAL ADMITS RECRUITING STUDENTS”
New Vision’s Paul Kiwuuwa writes that George Oundo has received funding and training from “abroad” and targeted children, mostly “needy” ones, because children are “easy to initiate and they like easy things”. “Conversion” was achieved through books and compact disc …

From Entebbe, Uganda - The New Vision, a Uganda daily, reprinted today an article by Irish Times writer John Waters lambasting the Western media for pumping out its partisan propaganda about HIV prevention through the distribution of condoms.

The western media has been pumping out its partisan propaganda about prevention of AIDS
through the distribution of condoms (original caption)
Beyond taking the defence of the Pontiff’s unfounded claim that condoms aggravated the problem of HIV, Waters’s proposition is that “once you advocate condom use, you are accepting that abstinence is no longer a persuasive option”. Deliberate …

In a lengthy but rather well constructed and documented article published online in The East African, Curtis Abraham steers the charge against UNAIDS “for perpetuating the myth of condom effectiveness in Africa in the face of all evidence.”
Abraham rightly identifies that in a country like Uganda, the reduction in HIV incidence was not the result of condom-only prevention interventions (thanks to Helen Epstein for casting some light on the subject in her book “The Invisible Cure”) but was owning to behaviour changes and in particular partner-reduction campaigns such as that …