Christian Medical Professional Applauds New CDC AIDS Testing Guidelines
by Mary Rettig and Jenni Parker
May 25, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The executive director of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations says the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct routine AIDS testing for adults and teenagers is a good idea.Earlier this month, the CDC proposed a plan to test all Americans between the ages of 13 and 64 for AIDS when they go to the doctor. According to Timothy Mastro, acting director of the CDC's Global AIDS Program, the idea behind the new guidelines is to make more people aware of their HIV status.
In a recent news conference, Mastro noted that the CDC's recommendation is to restructure its approach to HIV testing so that it is not based on the risk to individuals or to the community in which certain individuals live, but instead testing becomes routine for all people between the specified age range. "People with ongoing risk behaviors should be tested more frequently," the public health official said, "but we think everyone should be tested at least once in the 13- to 64-year-old age group."
Dr. David Stevens of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) says these new CDC guidelines are important because HIV/AIDS needs to be treated like the epidemic it is. He believes the larger scope of the testing will help uncover the estimated quarter million people who are infected with HIV and don't know it.
"Interestingly enough," Stevens points out, "we got this idea to move this direction from what's happened in Africa, where a number of countries have changed to this format and have done a much better job of identifying disease carriers, making sure they don't pass it on to other people, and limiting the spread of the epidemic."
The Christian physician also thinks this measure may have the added benefit of helping to remove the stigma of getting tested for AIDS. And, while some people are concerned by the age range the CDC has bracketed, he agrees that its broad parameters are necessary.
"Unfortunately, 13 seems very young," the CMDA spokesman says, "but when you look at sexual promiscuity, and when you look at drug use and abuse, it's starting at that age." One of the keys to preventing HIV/AIDS, he emphasizes, is to detect the infection early and get people on anti-viral medication at the proper time.
"So, yes," Stevens says, "it needs to be tested rather young, and that [age range] is an average population more at risk in some groups than others."
Focus Action Outraged by Increased Funding for Ineffective Global Fund
But while the Christian Medical & Dental Associations applaud the steps being taken by the CDC to fight the global AIDS crisis, another pro-family organization is criticizing Congress for increasing contributions to an international fund that finances the efforts of liberal groups to legalize prostitution and drug use and to promote condom-based sex education.
Last week the House Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee more than doubled the U.S. contribution to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, increasing the funding from $200 million to $445 million. The pro-family group Focus on the Family Action described the lawmakers' move as a betrayal of common sense, conservative values, proven research, and President George W. Bush's policies.
Peter Brandt, senior director of government and public policy for Focus on the Family Action, says the use of American tax dollars to further subsidize The Global Fund is an outrage. "The battle against AIDS deserves our attention and support," he asserts, "but only through initiatives that have demonstrated results."
Brandt notes that President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has adopted the Ugandan strategy known as "ABC", which stresses sexual abstinence, being faithful in monogamous relationships and, for those who are not abstinent, using condoms. This approach has decreased the prevalence rate of HIV in Uganda from 31 to 6.5 percent between 1990 and 2002.
"Our tax dollars should not be siphoned away from that strategy to fund the destructive agendas of liberal organizations," Brandt asserts. He says it is "intolerable" to take $245 million from PEPFAR, which is based on a proven approach, to further pad The Global Fund.
"Condoms have never lowered the HIV rates in a generalized epidemic," the Focus Action official points out, "and we would have no ability to hold the Fund accountable for its irresponsible use of our money."
Focus Action has joined more than 25 pro-family organizations in sending a letter to the House of Representatives, urging them to limit allocations to The Global Fund to the President's request of $300 million and to funnel U.S. funding for HIV/AIDS through government-controlled programs like PEPFAR. The letter details the "night-and-day differences" between the two plans and urges Congress not to increase spending on the Fund but instead to reinforce the common-sense provisions President's Bush has promoted.
America's elected officials are responsible to the citizens who elected them for how they spend the taxpayers' money, Brandt contends, and he says it is clear that The Global Fund is a poor investment of those tax dollars. Focus on the Family Action is calling on the full committee to adopt President Bush's proposed budget.
