opinion
What editorial writers are saying about the battle against AIDS
■ World AIDS Day was observed on Dec. 1, providing an opportunity to reflect on what progress has been made.
Posted Dec. 13, 2010.
The previous week, Pope Benedict XVI had indicated that using condoms might be justified to prevent the spread of AIDS.
AIDS battle continues
Recent medical breakthroughs may provide the strongest weapon against the disease. A study of healthy gay men who took an anti-AIDS pill daily yielded encouraging results -- they were 44% less likely to get infected with HIV. But more funding is needed to continue research projects that could one day save lives. The Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 1
Upping the ante for AIDS
The United States pledged $4 billion last month [to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria] -- short of the desired $6 billion. But even that lesser amount is not assured. A new Congress in the mood for deficit-cutting must find a creative way to fulfill this crucial obligation to the world's poorest. The (Cleveland) Plain-Dealer, Dec. 1
Big victory in AIDS battle
More use of condoms has helped contain the spread of infections. Safe-sex practice won support this week from Pope Benedict XVI; he went against Vatican tradition by backing the use of condoms as a way to prevent new infections in gay men. The Kansas City Star, Nov. 26
The pope and condoms
Much good will come out of the Vatican's controversial and, to us anyway, long-overdue change. Especially in Africa (with the world's highest incidence of AIDS) and Latin America, the Vatican's new tolerance of condoms should encourage many more people to use them. The Providence (R.I.) Journal, Nov. 28
A papal surprise
"[F]or all the qualifications, [Pope] Benedict has acknowledged the applicability to AIDS of the traditional Catholic doctrine of the "double effect." That teaching holds that an action with an immoral effect can be permissible if it also has a good effect. So even if one assumes that contraception is wrong (a proposition traditionally asserted by the Vatican although it is widely rejected by Catholics in the developed world), the use of a condom can be justified because it reduces the transmission of disease. Los Angeles Times, Nov. 23
World AIDS Day relevant
While the good news is that HIV/AIDS is no longer the death sentence it was once, our community cannot become complacent. The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press, Dec. 1
