The fight against AIDS is failing on two very distant fronts these days.
In two new studies this month, researchers found that more people in the United States are engaging in unsafe sex these days, under the mistaken belief that newer medications make HIV infection easily treatable or less fatal.
The studies, reported on www.webMD.com, examined changing attitudes on AIDS by surveying groups about their sexual practices and drug users about sharing needles. The results were disturbing and bad news for AIDS prevention: One in three people surveyed admitted to no longer practicing safe sex because they believed newer AIDS drugs provide protection from the devastating disease.
And a further study in the journal AIDS found that drug users were tired of always making sure they used separate needles.
"People believe that HIV is less fatal and not as easily transmissible because of the new treatments," said Craig Demmer, who directed the safe sex study.
He labeled this new phenomenon "condom fatigue" and "needle fatigue." Evidently, medicine and technology have advanced so much that some people have become too lazy to take precautions to avoid a known fatal disease simply because they believe the doctors will be able to save them.
The fact that some people are worrying less about contracting HIV because they are able to afford treatments bewilders me. In terms of attitudes, it appears AIDS has become akin to the common cold for some.
Only in an industrialized superpower like the United States does such a phenomenon seem possible. This nation's health news varies from the newest botox treatment to the obesity epidemic to the latest workout crazes, whether it's Tae-bo or Pilates. Even just a few weeks ago, I wrote a story about how drinking soda can have harmful effects on the body. Because we are concerned with our national welfare, I guess it's easy to forget about the great amount of suffering in the world in regions where people don't have access to the newest protein shakes - or the newest treatments for HIV.
Meanwhile, 3 million Africans will die from malaria this year, an easily preventable and treatable disease.
The worldwide death toll for AIDS is approaching 30 million people. Africa is a continent where some governments still refuse to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic and where senseless beliefs about HIV and AIDS persist. It is a continent ripped apart by war and disease, yet largely neglected in the current U.S. political viewfinder.
Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University, pointed out in a column in The Boston Globe that this year, President Bush "asked for only $200 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria - a sum equal to 1.5 days of spending on the US occupying forces in Iraq." He points out that the president's recent request for $87 billion to rebuild Iraq this year is tragically disproportionate, especially when one considers that the number of sub-Saharan Africans living with HIV/AIDS right now exceeds the total population of Iraq.
My point here isn't to criticize the Bush policy in Iraq. Nor is it to chide those not practicing AIDS prevention as much as they should. Regardless of your politics or lifestyle, it is important to reflect on the great degree of suffering of which we may not be aware.
Foreign aid policies are criticized by many conservatives as wasteful misuse of government funds. But it is hard to accept how so many people can be dying from AIDS, as well as other treatable diseases, here and around the world due to the lack of adequate prevention education and funding, while politicians bolster defense spending and bicker about a myriad mundane topics.
It's time to place more emphasis and greater funding behind our AIDS prevention policy.
Ishtiaque Masud is an economics junior. Reach him at ishtiaque.masud@asu.edu.
