Bush and Condoms in Africa

Andrew Quinn has the byline on a Reuters article entitled, US abstinence drive hurts AIDS fight - UN official” The opening salvo is, “The U.S. government's emphasis on abstinence-only programs to prevent AIDS is hobbling Africa's battle against the pandemic by downplaying the role of condoms, a senior U.N. official said on Monday.” So it is our fault that AIDS is spreading in Uganda. The article also goes on to report that, “Uganda's State Minister for Health Mike Makula told the Monitor newspaper on Monday there was no condom shortage, saying the country had 65 million in stock and had ordered another 80 million for delivery soon.” The article continues to deride the Bush administration for the program that promotes abstinence as the primary and best way to prevent the spread of AIDS. The claim is that abstinence-only is hurting the “use a condom” message. It’s a PR problem?

Later a spokesperson named Jodi Jacobson of the U.S.-based Center for Health and Gender Equity is quoted and spreads the blame a little, “They are kow-towing to the (U.S.) fundamentalist right on this issue." At least she didn’t say Evangelicals, but I digress. There is nothing really about the article that surprises me insofar as those quoted from the UN, Uganda, or the US that blame the United States for the spread of AIDS in Africa. I will leave that to your own set of logical constructs but while you are musing consider this.

According to the CIA World fact book the population of Uganda is estimated as of August 9, 2005 to be 27,269,482. You do the math…65 million condoms in stock with 27 million people in country.

One more fact for your consideration. The age distribution is as follows:

0-14 years: 50.1% (male 6,875,663/female 6,784,378) 15-64 years: 47.7% (male 6,511,867/female 6,494,859) 65 years and over: 2.2% (male 263,790/female 338,925) (2005 est.) CIA World Fact Book