Today there are over 40 million people living with HIV or AIDS. Last year, 5 million more people contracted the virus. Despite increasing awareness and education about AIDS and how it is transferred along with billions of dollars of research to find a cure, the number of infected people continues to rise.

While conservatives typically reject the notion that government can solve societal problems, most of the world does not. The World Health Organization (WHO), part of the United Nations, has invested enormous time, energy, and money into fighting AIDS. This is especially true in Africa where AIDS has become a near pandemic. Sub—Saharan Africa alone has over 24 million infected individuals. Only one nation has had success in the fight against AIDS, Uganda. This, despite that 60,000 people die from AIDS every week throughout the world.

On the WHO website,  a number of measures are listed as ways to combat infection, yet not one of these includes abstinence. Condoms, counseling, and education are about the only ways the WHO apparently believes AIDS can be combated. If 60,000 people were dying every week from Russian Roulette, would the solution be to use a lower caliber gun? AIDS is primarily transmitted through sexual intercourse and drug use. In Africa, intercourse is the primary means of transference.

Uganda's strategy has been the ABC approach: Abstinence, Be faithful, and (use) Condoms. HIV cases in Uganda have fallen 70% in the 1990's according to the BBC,  and evidence shows that it continues to fall. Of course, leftists and others have criticized Uganda's ABC approach as being ineffective, impractical, and unreasonable. Human Rights Watch,  a frequent critic of the War on Terror and the detainment of unlawful combatants at Guantanamo Bay, they have been especially critical of Uganda's ABC strategy despite its success. 

Such absurd thinking is typical of the left and international organizations. While their intentions are often honorable, their means are frequently at odds with reality. Uganda has a proven strategy that works, yet because it requires moral convictions and self control is it rejected as unworkable. Uganda's strategy has been based on Christian principles and implemented by President Museveni and his wife. It should be noted that Human Rights Watch opposes restrictions to abortion, and proposes that marriage be re—defined to include same—sex couples. It has also called for condom distribution in prisons according to Wikipedia. 

The same groups who criticize the ABC method are quick to attack the Bush administration, which has championed Uganda's success as a model for other African nations. To these groups, abstinence is simply not workable because they view it as unreasonable to ask people to abstain from intercourse until marriage. This is hard to comprehend when 40 million infected people walk the planet. Indeed, it has been hailed as a success that the rate of increase has decreased.

Now, this does not mean that fewer people contracted the virus, rather the rate of increase is simply not as high from previous years. It is absurd to think that the use of condoms coupled with education will help fight AIDS in Africa where infection and prevelance rates are so gigantic. For example, if 30% of a population has AIDS, and condoms are ineffective 20% or even 10% of the time, disaster is inevitable. The AIDS reality in Africa is nothing short of disaster. Tragically, AIDS is terminal. And, since you can never rid yourself of the virus there is always a chance of spreading the infection any time you engage in sexual activity. The sick irony of treatment for AIDS is that it prolongs the life of the infected person and thus increases the chance of them spreading the virus.

Simply put, drastic problems call for drastic solutions. In my opinion, abstinence is hardly a drastic solution for such an enormous problem, but for those on the left like Human Rights Watch, it apparently is. If the left was truly serious about stopping the spread of AIDS rather than just slowing it, they would embrace Uganda's ABC method rather than criticize it. You can't argue with results, ABC has worked in Uganda with amazing success and it can work anywhere in the world if implemented properly.

One person in the WHO seems to be getting a clue, Innocent Ntaganira of the World Health Organization's AIDS programs said the statistics on mounting infections and deaths could only be understood to mean that "HIV prevention efforts are not having a decided impact." Lets hope more will figure it out soon.

Jonathan D. Strong, Esq. publishes The Strong Conservative