AEGiS-NYT: AIDS Agency Takes Issue With the Pope

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

AIDS Agency Takes Issue With the Pope

The New York Times - March 20, 2009
Neil Macfarquhar

The United Nations AIDS agency has joined the chorus of politicians and activists critical of Pope Benedict XVI for saying as he embarked on a tour of Africa this week that condoms "increase the problem" of the disease. With more than 7,400 new infections of H.I.V., which causes AIDS, reported daily, "condoms are an essential part of combination prevention," the agency, Unaids, said Thursday in a statement issued from its Geneva headquarters. The statement added that the condom was "the single, most efficient, available technology to reduce the sexual transmission of H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted infections." Unaids said it had made strides in getting sexually active young people in many African countries to start using condoms. The pope, who said Mass before some 60,000 people in Yaounde, Cameroon, on Thursday, had stressed abstinence as the key method to combat AIDS.
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