EDITORIAL: Obama AIDs policy reflects global perspective

‘ ‘ ‘ For the past eight years, the Bush administration has approached the global AIDS crisis… ‘ ‘ ‘ For the past eight years, the Bush administration has approached the global AIDS crisis with a narrow agenda. ‘ ‘ ‘ While President George W. Bush’s $45 billion PEPFAR program brought AIDS drugs to nearly 3 million people in poor countries like Rwanda and Uganda, his public health policies have largely promoted abstinence education and monogamy over safe condom use. ‘ ‘ ‘ During Bush’s presidency, the government took significant measures to restrict education on condom use. In fact, Gill Greer, director general of the International Planned Pregnancy Federation in London, told Bloomberg News that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even removed some information about condoms from its Web site. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘The U.S. administration has certainly succeeded in demonizing condoms rather than showing that they can be part of prevention of both unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections,’ said Greer. ‘ ‘ ‘ The current administration has provided more money to fight AIDS than any other administration in U.S. history. But Bush’s abstinence education policies are naive and ignore the fact that there are blatant cultural and societal differences between various peoples throughout the world. ‘ ‘ ‘ These narrow policies have hindered sexually transmitted disease prevention and general family planning, Susan F. Wood, co-chairman of President-elect Barack Obama’s advisory committee for women’s health, told Bloomberg News. ‘ ‘ ‘ Wood also said that the Bush administration has, in the past few years, swayed and ‘tightly vetted’ various international groups to mirror U.S. policies. ‘ ‘ ‘ This arrogant approach once again fails to take into consideration the lifestyle differences between people across the world and seeks to impose U.S. standards on people who are not American. ‘ ‘ ‘ Under an Obama administration, there will be major changes. ‘ ‘ ‘ Obama will replace the current administration’s approach with a more realistic policy, emphasizing condom use and family planning to prevent unintended pregnancies and the spread of dangerous diseases. The president-elect will approach the AIDS crisis with the balanced and worldly perspective it requires. ‘ ‘ ‘ Obama’s perspective is a refreshing change to the limited ideology of the past eight years. However, such a drastic shift from abstinence instruction to the promotion of condom use must be supplemented with the necessary education. Otherwise, the shift could be deadly. Those who live in countries where AIDS is a big problem should be informed of prevention methods, how they work and how they can fail. Education is key to ensuring that people lead safe lives and that they do not harm others. Without it, no policy is complete.