AIDs is certainly a serious problem, but also one that is easily preventable through allowing condom distribution. If the Catholic Church would step up and endorse condom use as a means of preventing the spread of AIDs and other STDs (and pregnancy), that might go a long way. The rebuttal that the only 100% effective form of prevention is to simply not have sex is neither realistic nor accurate.
Another very simply preventative measure is education. Former President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa wins the "Dumbass of the Decade" Award, for a)denying a link between HIV and AIDs, and b)promoting herbal and beet-based rememdies over, you know, medicine. Think there's a link between the government of South Africa (and the Catholic Church, hell, most world religions in general) peddling biased and dangerously inaccurate information and the fact that South Africa has the largest number of AIDs/HIV sufferers in the world? I do.
With that said, I do NOT support forcing the major pharmaceuticals to give away AIDs medication for free. That medicine cost billions to develop, and forcing those who developed to give it away for free is unfair, especially when it will likely do no good (due to ongoing dangerous activity, local corruption, poor distribution networks, poor education about how to take the drug cocktails, etc.). I hate to say it, but for the majority of people in the Third World, there is probably no solution, for the reasons I listed above. One can only hope that their governments and their religions shape up, get with the 21st Century, and find some way to support future prevention.
Another very simply preventative measure is education. Former President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa wins the "Dumbass of the Decade" Award, for a)denying a link between HIV and AIDs, and b)promoting herbal and beet-based rememdies over, you know, medicine. Think there's a link between the government of South Africa (and the Catholic Church, hell, most world religions in general) peddling biased and dangerously inaccurate information and the fact that South Africa has the largest number of AIDs/HIV sufferers in the world? I do.
With that said, I do NOT support forcing the major pharmaceuticals to give away AIDs medication for free. That medicine cost billions to develop, and forcing those who developed to give it away for free is unfair, especially when it will likely do no good (due to ongoing dangerous activity, local corruption, poor distribution networks, poor education about how to take the drug cocktails, etc.). I hate to say it, but for the majority of people in the Third World, there is probably no solution, for the reasons I listed above. One can only hope that their governments and their religions shape up, get with the 21st Century, and find some way to support future prevention.
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