I've continued another blog: anotherstampinthepassport.blogspot.com.

I have been updating that blog. It's still about HIV/AIDS!!

Condoms-- Taboo

On my recent trip I had a lot of time in the car and remembered that I had downloaded a series done at Bethel College on HIV/AIDS. The speakers were very interesting and most of the sessions were very good. I was impressed with a conservative Christian College dedicating a whole seminar on HIV/AIDS. I listened to two speakers who had clearly not listened to each other. It was quite humorous and shed light on a lot of the problems and obstacles to moving forward with unity on prevention of HIV/AIDS.

Many of you know or have heard about HIV in Uganda and how it is one of the only nations in Africa where the incidence of HIV decreased for a period of time. When that happened it was up for grabs to take credit for the progress. Many advocates claimed that since they introduced the ABC (Abstinence, Be Faithful, Condom) strategy there was a decrease in HIV incidence. Recently, however, there has been an increase in incidence. One speaker highlighted the clear association with abstinence education and the decrease of HIV in Uganda using numbers and stats. He explained that once condoms were introduced the country went the way of the rest of Africa to increase incidence. Another speaker (who was himself African and a Christian) interpreted the events very differently. He said that the ABCs were initially used to promote behaviour change to use condoms . This was responsible for the decrease. He said that when PEPFAR (an initiative by President Bush) was introduced and abstinence only education was taught people stopped using condoms but did not stop having sex! And because of that the incidence in Uganda has increased.

Do you see how easy it is to use statistics and correlations to argue your point? Do you see how easy it is to see what you want to see? We need to get beyond promoting "our way" as the best and see that all ways have their place in different times and different locations. Uganda is a mystery to me. I have tried to do literature research on the studies done during the decline of incidence, but it is almost impossible to find an objective study or article published. I could argue both sides relatively easily but for what gain? I don't care to only see what I want to see in my perfect little box of how things should be. I need to see the truth and reality and move on from there.

Christian, what happens to your worldview if someone says that condoms are working well to prevent HIV? Can God allow condoms prevent HIV transmission among non-married people? Can God use condoms to prevent viral load from increasing in a married couple where one spouse has been unfaithful? Would/Could God allow a condom to protect a man who has sex with other men from acquiring HIV?

It comes down to how you let your worldview influence the way you see problems and solutions.

If I were the enemy

If I were the enemy I would create a horrible disease affecting the poor, marginalized, and underprivileged in society.

I would create the disease so it would slowly destroy the immune system of healthy people in 6-8 years so that no one would know they are infected until too late.

I would create the disease to mimic individual DNA so that a vaccine couldn't be developed.

I would create the disease so that it would affect young moms and dads who then couldn't care for their children and of course having the side benefit of wiping
out the most productive population in society.

I would create the disease so that it could be transmitted to babies in order to provide them with a slow, painful death within 5 years.

I would let it affect a continent that only produces 1% of the economic productivity in the world so that no one else would really care.

I would create it to be a sexually transmitted disease.
Then I would let it be discovered in gay people first to ensure a stigma would be attached to it.
By that time most Christians could justify not caring and they wouldn't get involved.

And of those Christians who decided to get involved I would distract them with controversial issues about sex and condoms and make them question their own morality and those with the disease.
I would distract them by providing a ton of conferences for them to go in order to make them feel like they are doing something.
I would ensure that Christian leaders would come out saying that it is God's judgment on those awful, immoral people.

And of the Christians who are helping and trying to make a difference I would have the other Christians judge them, not listen to them, and discriminate against them.

And then I would call it HIV/AIDS and sit back and watch 14,000 unassuming people get infected every day.

It would be one of my greatest accomplishments in history.

I am back! I'm pretty sure I've never seen so much of the United States of America than in the last few weeks.

First trip: To Boston and Grand Rapids, MI to see some wonderful friends and go to an amazing conference.
Second Trip: It was wonderful to go out west to South Dakota, Wyoming (Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons), Montana, and Minnesota with my family!
Third Trip: All through North Carolina (including the Cherokee Reservation that my GPS took me through) and TN to visit more friends!

I also have big news: I am have accepted a fellowship with the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) as a program manager in Vietnam for at least a year. So I am now employed!

Through August I will continue writing about HIV/AIDS. I hope that you will continue to join the discussion.

Conversations

Kari, my twin sister, moved into my apartment about a month ago since she is in nursing school at Chapel Hill. It is a open loft apartment with one bedroom upstairs.

People keep asking if we are getting along in such a small space. I keep telling them, "We shared a womb for 8 1/2 months together a while back."

I was telling Kari this today and she quickly replied, " Well...we didn't have to worry about beds and couches then!!" Hm... good point...I might have to revise my response!

In other news I am on my way to Boston, MA to visit my dear friend, Olivia B.







Then I'm flying to Grand Rapids, MI to go to an ecumenical, economics conference, called Acton, with another dear friend, Anneli M. It will be a great 10 days! I hope to write a few thoughts from the conference.

HIV prevention dance

In Malawi (Southeastern Africa) I was able to travel with a group called Action for Behaviour Change. I traveled with them a few days to do testing at a catholic school site. Then we traveled to another elementary school and they did a prevention presentation. The school didn't have any desks or chalk board. There were just a few open cement rooms. About 40 children followed in and sat down on the floor. The leader started singing a song and all of the children stood up and started singing along. One thing that I noticed about the children in Malawi is that they were always excited to sing and to sing as loud as they could. And I think they were all born with a beautiful rhythm! Later I found out that all of the songs were about prevention of HIV. These children were about 7-10 years old! I thought it was very clever to put the message to song. Because as we all know we don't forget songs and if they are really catchy we will get them stuck in our heads! Also, it is easy to memorize a song.

Who is at risk?

"An estimated 252,000--312,000 persons in the United States are unaware that they are infected with HIV and, therefore, are unaware of their risk for HIV transmission" (1). This is about a ¼ of all infected individuals in the United States.

That is pretty incredible considering free and rapid testing. Access to HIV testing is amazingly widespread and easy.

Some people don't want to get tested because they don't think they are at risk. Some people don't want to get tested because they just don't want to face the facts. In my masters paper I found that only 6%-7% of HIV positive women knew that their partners were infected (and 100% of their partners were infected in my sample). My question to you is… do you know who you are sleeping with?

My other question is who do you think are at most risk of acquiring HIV? MSM? IDU? White? Black? Hispanic?

1Glynn MK, Rhodes P. Estimated HIV prevalence in the United States at the end of 2003 [Abstract T1-B1101]. Presented at the 2005 National HIV Prevention Conference, Atlanta, Georgia; June 14, 2005.