Putting the Perspective in Perspective
This week, the New York Times ran an op-ed and a story which together illustrated the challenge facing AIDS advocates. The op-ed made the point that poor countries in Africa get too much money for AIDS and not enough for some basic infrastructure which would have more impact on people’s health. [Read the op-ed.] The story described the precipitous increase in new HIV infections among gay men under 30, particularly gay black and Latino men—between 2001 and 2006 the increase was more than 30%. [Read the article.]
I’m certainly not arguing against investing more money in improving the infrastructure in poor countries—I do challenge the zero sum mentality of the op-ed. And the story makes clear the challenge of reducing new infections. After all of the money and the studies and the social marketing etcetera, the issue remains sex: who should have it and what kind exactly they should have. Much greater strides have been made in combating intravenous drug use-related transmission of HIV than have been made in curtailing sexual transmission. Look at the numbers—new infections are increasing in young gay men, particularly young gay men of color. Because of cultural taboos, we have been unable to stop everyone from engaging in unhealthy sexual behaviors with AIDS-specific funding. How could anyone imagine it could be done in the more general context of public health?
God, yes, fund the infrastructure needs. But don’t do so at the expense of sexually active people here and abroad. And let’s not wait till AIDS sickens as many people as dirty water before we figure this out.
