Boston Globe Publishes HIV/AIDS-Related Editorial, Opinion Piece

The Boston Globe recently published an HIV/AIDS-related editorial and opinion piece. Summaries appear below.

Editorial
Donald MacGillis: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni "has resisted lending his support" to male circumcision campaigns aimed at reducing the spread of HIV despite being the "first African leader to recognize the threat of AIDS and to mobilize his country against it" in the 1980s, Globe editor MacGillis writes in an editorial. Although the Ugandan Ministry of Health "support[s]" efforts to increase male circumcision, Museveni "remains skeptical," saying that "'reckless behavior' is the root of the AIDS problem," MacGillis writes. MacGillis concludes that efforts to improve public health in Uganda, including promoting circumcision and addressing population growth, "deserv[e] the same resolve that Museveni -- to his everlasting credit -- once devoted to fighting AIDS" (MacGillis, Boston Globe, 5/25).

Opinion Piece
Pat Daoust: Congress "should stipulate" in its reauthorization of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief that prevention, testing and treatment of HIV/AIDS "be linked with family planning services in Africa," Daoust, director of the Health Action AIDS Campaign at Physicians for Human Rights, writes in an opinion piece. According to Daoust, the U.S. "could do a better job saving" lives of young women living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa "if our leaders would place the best public health practices over political compromise." Daoust adds that PEPFAR aid is not provided to clinics that provide family planning services "because of conservatives' concern that such services might provide or advise on abortions." Daoust writes that "[l]inking women's health care with HIV services should be obvious," concluding, "Compromise at the expense of the most vulnerable and voiceless should no longer be acceptable" (Daoust, Boston Globe, 5/26).