Attitudes

A Good Idea 'We should do everything possible to ensure that all people living with HIV can get early, effective medical care.' 'Oregon's U.S. senator Gordon Smith, who cosponsored legislation to expand Medicaid coverage to include people with HIV who have not progressed to an AIDS diagnosis With This Kind of Support, We Might Succeed 'The New York City Department of Health's failure to demonstrate severe need for a city with the highest number of AIDS cases in the country and maintain supplemental funding is reprehensible.' 'New York City public advocate Betsy Gotbaum, on the city's $14 million reduction in federal HIV funds in 2003, which she blamed on a poorly prepared funding proposal by the health department This Is One Point of View... 'They buy into the 'safe sex' myth of battling AIDS that to this point has failed miserably.' 'Pennsylvania's U.S. representative Joseph Pitts, writing in a March 26 opinion piece in The Washington Times that global HIV prevention programs should embrace the 'ABC' prevention paradigm: abstinence before marriage, being faithful to one partner, and condom use only as a final option ...But This Is Reality Talking 'If you are in a position to use a condom and you do not use it, then you [transmit] AIDS, you have committed murder.' 'The Reverend Gideon Byamugisha of Uganda on people's failure to use condoms to prevent HIV transmissions, to New Vision of Kampala, Uganda It Seems a Reasonable Suggestion 'To protect public health, I urge the FDA to ban the sale of condoms and sexual lubricants with the additive nonoxynol-9.' 'California assemblyman Paul Koretz on his bill calling for a ban of nonoxynol-9 because the commonly used spermicide increases the chances for HIV infection Well...It's Becoming a Suggestion 'Offering routine HIV testing would be analogous to the current standard of care that indicates routine offering of Pap smear tests to women between the ages of 18 and 65, irrespective of risk.' 'Researchers at Brown University, calling for universal HIV antibody testing for patients between the ages of 18 and 65, in the Journal of Infectious DiseasesLooking for a Choir to Preach To AIDS is a 'God-given opportunity for moral and spiritual growth, a time to renew our assumptions about sin and morality.' 'South African health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in announcing a new faith-based AIDS initiative in the country Oh! Those Sinful Teachers and Doctors 'AIDS is decimating the work force [in Africa], killing the most skilled and productive members of society'the teachers, the civil servants, the doctors, the scientists.' 'United Natioins secretary-general Kofi Annan The Plan of Action... 'For an African-American community that is being devastated by AIDS, there can be no greater service right now than empowering young women'and men'to talk frankly about sex.' 'Laura Hall, a member of the Alabama legislature and a board member of the Black AIDS Institute, in an opinion piece in USA Today...The Method to Get It Accomplished 'We have to tailor the message to the group, whether it's street kids or people over 50. We have to crawl into the heads of people to find out how we can get the message out, get it heard and internalized.' 'American Foundation for AIDS Research chairman Mervyn Silverman on the need for new safer-sex and HIV education campaigns The Fear of Treading on Thin Ice 'There are people who have relatives with these diseases. They might get upset.' 'Arnie Rothschild, president of Normal Communications, on why the company rejected public-health ads designed for buses and bus shelters in upstate New York, to The Post Standard of Syracuse, N.Y. The Courage to Walk the High Wire 'This is what the face of AIDS looks like.' 'Former Playboy Playmate Rebekka Armstrong, referring to herself, during an April 8 speech at Purdue University