A special issue of Sexuality Research and Social Policy, the official journal of the National Sexuality Resource Center (NSRC), examined a broad range of problem associated with abstinence only programmes.
Having reviewed 56 studies assessing the impact of abstinence programs and that of comprehensive programmes on adolescents’ sexual behaviour (pdf) Douglas B. Kirby, concluded that “abstinence programs have little evidence to warrant their widespread replication; conversely, strong evidence suggests that some comprehensive programs should be disseminated widely.”
More to the point (emphasis mine)
When comparing recent studies of the effectiveness of abstinence and …

Research conducted by the respectable Kaiser Foundation has revealed that “Many viewers of an episode of ABC’s prime-time medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” that included a story about mother-to-child HIV transmission gained awareness of the issue“.
Victoria Rideout was “astounded!” By the number of viewers that “picked up on factual health info about HIV embedded in the show, and that they remembered it weeks later”, emphasis mine.
Hang on a minute. Would this mean that actually people are affected by what they see and hear on TV? And that people are able …

Last year Middle England met the sex trade head-on when the Hampshire WI emerged as an unlikely champion of the reform of prostitution laws and members Jean Johnson and Shirley Landels led their 7,000-strong membership to advocate the legalisation of brothels in Britain.
Now Channel 4 investigative  journalist Nicky Taylor joins forces with the ladies of the Hampshire WI on a journey to find out what makes a best practice brothel, how the laws need to change to create it and whether it’s possible to set up the UK’s first legal …

The New York Times commenting on a report by The Black AIDS Institute, writes on the extent of the HIV epidemic amongst African American in the USA.
The report financed in part by the Ford Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation, ranked the virtual Black American country 16th in the world in the number of people living with the AIDS virus.
“Nearly 600,000 African-Americans are living with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, and up to 30,000 are becoming infected each year. When adjusted for age, their death rate is …

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 …