Off The Front Page, But Still A Scourge

The New York Times tells us here today that…

…millions of people are becoming infected because governments are overlooking studies showing that behavior modification works, AIDS experts said Tuesday.

Among the behavior modifications the experts cited: promoting safer sex through delayed intercourse and the use of condoms, decreasing drug abuse, providing access to needle exchange programs and promoting male circumcision.

(By the way, this story originated from the 26th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.)

Yes, none of these approaches are cure-alls by themselves, but, combined with drug therapies and other means, they can help slow the spread of the disease (obvious, I know, but it bears repeating).

And Bloomberg tells us here that…

The AIDS virus infects about 40 percent more people in the U.S. than the government has long estimated, federal health officials said today. The new data sparked criticism of Bush administration policies.

About 56,300 people in the U.S. annually contract HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Since 2001, the Atlanta-based agency had said there were about 40,000 new infections a year. The latest data, gained using new methods, suggests the rate was higher all along, said Kevin Fenton, the CDC's director of AIDS prevention.

Gosh, Bushco doctoring statistics to put itself in a more favorable light than it deserves? Color me shocked!

And in an effort to learn more about this miscalculation, I navigated to this site and found the following disclaimer…

New technology and methodology developed by CDC show that the incidence of HIV in the United States is higher than was previously known. However, the incidence has been stable at that higher level for most of this decade.

So what? You still underreported the numbers, didn’t you?

And in other AIDS-related news, this tells us that H.R. 5501, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 (now that's a mouthful!), was signed into law by President Highest Disapproval Rating in Gallup Poll History on July 30th (this was the bill that Elizabeth Dole wanted renamed to include Jesse Helms, just to let you know, truly an obscenity given Helms’ intolerance towards LGBT individuals).

But while Dubya is busy patting himself on the back over signing Lantos-Hyde, please consider the following (from here)…

The two principal AIDS programs funded by the federal Government (in Dubya’s FY 2009 budget), the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) and the Ryan White CARE Act (RWCA), received a combined increase of seven million dollars between them; however, due to hefty annual price increases for lifesaving AIDS drugs that are automatically granted to the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry based on the consumer price index (CPI), the six million dollar ADAP budget increase actually translates into a $27 million dollar cut to the federally funded, state run consortia of ADAPs which provide lifesaving AIDS medicines to low-income Americans.

And the net effect is demonstrated here; I’m sure volunteers Cece Jones and Latoya Bryant could give Dubya an education – what a pity that they don’t live half a world away in a place where they dress unlike we do and engage in rituals that provide great photo-ops, like this one.

Update 9/16/08: Anon, I apologize, but I had to disallow your comment because of Blogger's ridiculous ultra-policing of comment spam - otherwise I would have gladly allowed the link.