World AIDS Day

In case you did not realise it, today is World AIDS Day. HIV/AIDS is certainly a massive problem, but in the West at least, we have managed to make it worse, by making it a PC disease. Indeed, in the West it has become the world’s first politically protected disease.

While in the developing world HIV is often problematic in the heterosexual community (largely because of anal sex, poor medical conditions and so on), in the Western world it is still overwhelmingly a homosexual problem. Yet you would not know that in many places.

The forces of political correctness and the militant homosexual lobby have sought to convince us that we are all at risk, and that there is nothing particularly unhealthy about male homosexual activity. It is indeed incredible how willing our elites have been to spread falsehoods on all this, just to promote a lifestyle.

As I wrote in my recent book, Strained Relations, “It may not be politically correct to say so, but if we seriously discouraged homosexual activity, we would greatly reduce the number of deaths due to AIDS in the Western world. Says one authority, ‘AIDS is a preventable, behavior-related disease. And we know what works in preventing the spread of AIDS. The virus is primarily spread by having sexual contact with an infected person or by sharing hypodermic needles or syringes with an infected person. Avoiding such behavior greatly reduces – indeed it almost entirely removes – the chances of becoming infected. Given the awful consequences of contracting the AIDS virus, it should be clear enough that public officials as well as members of the public health community have a basic responsibility to speak up for the true and time-honored, for things like restraint and responsibility on matters of sexual behavior.’

“Instead of claiming victim status, shouting homophobia, and blaming the rest of society, homosexuals need to take responsibility for their own actions. The simple truth is, if we want to see a real reduction in the number of AIDS cases, homosexuals will need to stop their high risk sexual practices.

“This is a truth which even some homosexuals have acknowledged. Consider this forthright comment by an American homosexual: ‘By continuing to engage in sexual practices that spread HIV, we are contributing to our own massacre. What is wrong with us? Are we so self-hating that we welcome death, that we would trade 10 minutes of pleasure for a lifetime of illness? . . . The gay men who are now contracting HIV through unsafe sex are not victims. They have consciously decided to disregard their own health and the welfare of their community’….

“It is because we have refused to treat HIV/AIDS as we have any other public health risk, that we now are paying a terrible price. One doctor puts the situation in striking terms: ‘If a foreign nation were to attack our shores and kill 10,000 Americans, it would be considered an act of war. Yet, millions of Americans have already been unnecessarily infected in this epidemic and they will almost all die. The tragedy is that this epidemic should never have occurred.’

“At bottom, AIDS is not primarily a health issue but a behaviour issue. Stop the behaviour (homosexual activity, and needle-based drug use) and you pretty well stop the disease. These are not just the thoughts of bigoted right wingers. Here is how one practicing lesbian puts it: ‘Let’s be honest. There is a way to stop the spread of AIDS – it’s called abstaining from sex. Unlike with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, or diabetes, you can make a decision to not get AIDS (with a few unfortunate exceptions, like the child of an infected mother or the victim of a contaminated blood transfusion). Considering its preventability, there is no excuse for AIDS being the biggest health crises we as a people face’.”

Yet despite all we know about how AIDS is mainly spread in the West, little change seems to be occurring. In fact, in some places things are getting worse. Consider this recent report out of the UK: “HIV diagnoses in UK homosexual men at all-time high”.

The story begins, “A report on HIV infection from the UK’s Health Protection Agency states that new diagnoses among men who have sex with men (MSM) reached an all-time high in 2011, with 3,010 new cases. The report, which was published on Thursday, says a ‘worrying’ trend has developed since 2007, with rates of new HIV infections rising rapidly among homosexual men.

“Nearly one in 12 male homosexuals in London now has HIV. In the rest of the nation, one in 20 homosexual men is HIV-positive. The highest rates of HIV were (47 per 1,000) reported among homosexual men, and the next highest rates (37 per 1,000) in the black African community.

“Almost two-thirds of homosexual men newly diagnosed as HIV-infected at an STI clinic had not attended a clinic for testing in the previous three years. The report says this ‘strongly suggests there is room for improvement in the frequency of testing by those at highest risk.’ The data state that approximately one quarter (22,600) of people infected with HIV were undiagnosed and unaware of their infection.

“The report provides the usual advice of ‘safer sex,’ that is, use of condoms, to reduce the risk of contracting or transmitting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, but adds that higher risk groups (homosexual men) should ‘avoid overlapping sexual relationships and reduce the number of sexual partners’.”

The situation elsewhere confirms this: “‘Partner reduction’ and reducing promiscuity have proven to be significant in reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS, whereas promotion of condoms use has not. A study commissioned by the UNFPA and UNAIDS found that a dramatic drop in HIV infection in Zimbabwe was driven primarily by changes in sexual behavior, particularly a drop in casual, commercial, and extramarital sex. ‘In Zimbabwe, as elsewhere, partner reduction appears to have played a crucial role in reversing the HIV epidemic,’ wrote head researcher Daniel Halperin, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health.

“Dr. Edward C. Green, president of the New Paradigm Fund and former director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard School of Health, concurred that this study added ‘further evidence’ of his long-held position that ‘fidelity (sometimes called partner reduction) and to a lesser extent, by abstinence (or late sexual debut) is what works best in AIDS prevention, especially in Africa’.”

Similar results are found elsewhere in Africa, most notably in Uganda, where its ‘ABC’ program has had great success in lowering HIV rates. It stands for ‘Abstain; Be faithful; and a last resort, use Condoms’. See here for more on this: http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/166065/Uganda-ABC%20Model.pdf

We all want to see a reduction in any deadly infectious disease, HIV/AIDS included. But when we turn such diseases into a political football, preferring to be politically correct rather than medically correct, then we are asking for trouble. And that is what we certainly have got at the moment.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/hiv-diagnoses-in-uk-homosexual-men-at-all-time-high?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=1607bb4172-

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