Governments failed to prevent Aids spread
Governments and health agencies failed to prevent the spread of Aids in Africa, scientists have said.
Tuesday, 01, Dec 2009 11:55
By Alex Steger.
Governments and health agencies failed to prevent the spread of Aids in Africa, scientists have said.
They claims a lack of political will led to missed chances to prevent the spread.
The claims made in the International Journal of STD and AIDS (IJSA) today accuse international agencies and governments of intentionally underestimating the blood-borne spread of HIV and instead focussing on its transmission via sex.
The special edition of the journal claims unsanitary procedures in healthcare, cosmetic care and ritual settings account for a substantial share of HIV transmission. It goes on to allege that bodies including the World Health Organisation and UNAID have underestimated this.
Wallace Dinsmore, a consultant genitourinary physician and IJSA editor-in-chief said, "African governments, the WHO, Centres for Disease Control and the UNAIDS have prolonged the epidemic in Africa in a way that could at best be described as utter incompetence. At worst, it smacks of callous politicking.
"The science has been there all along but some people have chosen to ignore it because it just didn't suit their ends."
Skin punctuation is apparently a major cause behind the continued outbreak and is being over looked.
John Potterat, a leading epidemiologist who co-edited the issue, said: "Many times in the last seven years researchers have presented evidence at odds with the consensus view that penile-vaginal intercourse is driving African HIV epidemics. Governments and international health agencies deliberately chose to ignore that evidence.
"By uncritically accepting the orthodox view that HIV is almost exclusively transmitted by sex, public health workers and researchers are complicit in prolonging avoidable suffering."