I am one of four panelists who will debate on Monday morning whether it is ethical for a government to offer material incentives in order to prevent HIV infections.
UPDATE 2/17/2011: The videocast has now been posted. To view it, click here, scroll to “DEBATE 5” and click on the phrase “Click here for videocast".
Just as the 2000 AIDS conference in Durban, South Africa was a watershed for AIDS treatment, the AIDS conference taking place now in Vienna is a watershed for HIV prevention. For the first time since our naïve optimism of the 1990s, we have some of the tools to effectively reduce the annual incidence rate of HIV (i.e.
Should AIDS treatment be viewed as a complement to HIV prevention or as an alternative? AIDS activists have strongly argued that HIV prevention is impossible without AIDS treatment, that the two interventions are strong complements. Their principal evidence for this claim is the demonstrable fact that the presence of AIDS treatment increases the demand for HIV testing.
Sunday’s Washington Post’s headline news: “HIV/AIDS Rate in DC Hits 3%.”. We are indeed in the midst of a “generalized and severe” HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Nation’s capital. Shocked? You should be.