American epidemiologist James Chin’s new book The AIDS Pandemic accuses UNAIDS of dramatizing the epidemic for political and financial gain.
Chin cites an alleged inflation of India’s estimated infection rate as an example of how UNAIDS bent scientific data to benefit their political and financial agenda. UNAIDS claimed the national HIV infection rate in India to be .9 percent; it has since been proven to be .36 percent.
Another author and AIDS researcher, Helen Epstein, joins Chin in criticizing the organization’s handling of the epidemic after having studied AIDS in Africa for several years. In her book The Invisible Cure, Epstein claims that the organization ignored certain sexual patterns (like the propensity to have multiple sex partners), choosing to focus instead on prevention tactics—such as condoms and abstinence—that have proven less effective at fighting the spread of AIDS in people already involved with multiple partners, in order to appeal to both liberals and conservatives.
Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
