Safe sex

Safe sex is the only kind
People who take risks with AIDS foolish at best, criminal at worst
By BOB MACDONALD -- Toronto Sun - June 2001

What a shame that the HIV virus that causes AIDS has increased by 34% here in the past four years.

And there's been a 7% HIV infection jump last year alone among Toronto's city's estimated 60,000 male homosexuals, the main group of people affected.

A joint Health Canada-Ontario ministry of health study revealed this week there are about 4,000 new cases of HIV annually in Ontario. Worse still, there are an estimated 15,000 people in Canada with HIV or AIDS who don't even know they are infected -- a much greater threat to spread the virus that attacks the body's immune system.

$400,000 CAMPAIGN

According to the experts, the main reason for the increase is that too many male homosexuals and bisexuals are failing to use condoms because of a false sense of security. Apparently the reason is that various anti-HIV chemical cocktails that have been developed and taken on a regular basis have proved effective in holding off development of the disease. So, safe sex has been going out of style.

There was even a suggestion that some men didn't insist on using a condom because of fear that a partner would reject them for doing so.

One result is that the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT) has announced a $400,000 advertising campaign as part of Gay Pride Week.

Called Welcome to Condom Country, it's a takeoff on the well-known Welcome to Marlboro Country cigarette ads. Handsome, even macho-looking men (making homosexuality look attractive?) are shown in cowboy outfits and riding horses -- except they're touching each other and about to kiss, etc. Along the bottom of the ad are the double-meaning words: "HIV is on the rise in Toronto. Ride Safely."

"We believe this will be a breakthrough public awareness campaign -- we will be everywhere," says Charles Roy, executive director of ACT.

I'm sure the posters and other ads will get much attention and, hopefully, they'll improve the worsening statistics. After all, AIDS has killed 23 million people globally since first discovered in the late 1970s. Of that, 17 million of the deaths were in sub-Saharan Africa, the area where the disease is believed to have originated. Of the 36 million people infected with HIV throughout the world today, 26 million live in Africa.

Although HIV and AIDS infection in our part of the globe is mostly among homosexual men, the infection is widespread in Africa among heterosexuals. Also, the chemical cocktails are often not available or too costly to many African patients.

As a result, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, an African, has urged creation of a "war chest" of $7 billion to $10 billion annually to be used in the fight against AIDS.

Some of the member nations have reservations, saying they have doubts the money would be spent correctly.

At any rate, super-wealthy Bill Gates announced yesterday through his foundation that he was making a $100-million contribution to the UN fund -- a follow-up to a previous $126- million donation to another AIDS fund.

In other words, billions upon billions of dollars are being spent on the high-profile campaigns to fight HIV and full-blown AIDS. Where it will end, no one can predict.

To my mind, the shame is that AIDS is a communicable disease and therefore preventable. Those who know this, but still knowingly take risks that can spread it, are at the least foolish and at the worst criminal.

CARING COSTS

Canadian Alliance MP Inky Mark noted recently that it costs $200,000 annually to care for an HIV patient. He quoted the figure while objecting to the admission to Canada last year of 200 HIV-positive newcomers who would add $40 million to the nation's health costs.

Which begs the question: What if the scourge of AIDS hadn't spread in the world in the past two decades and some of those billions spent to fight it could have been devoted to speeding up research on two of mankind's top, non-communicable killers -- cancer and heart disease?

Read Bob MacDonald on Wednesdays and Sundays. Reach him at bob.macdonald@tor.sunpub.com or 416-947-2236.

Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com.