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Debate on "abstinence-only" funding

    JOHANNESBURG

    The US government's approach to HIV/AIDS prevention has sparked debate in the US media.

    "Condoms are not the cure-all to HIV/AIDS in Africa," National Review editor Richard Lowry wrote in a column published Tuesday in the Arizona Daily Star. Lowry argued that African countries with the highest condom availability and user rates, also have some of the highest HIV infection rates.

    Lowry was responding to an article by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times of 10 January, which accused conservative supporters of US President George Bush of "waging a secret war on condoms".

    Bush recently upped his administration's 2003 budget of US $135 million for HIV/AIDS awareness in Africa, on the proviso that the money should be used for "abstinence-only education".

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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