Cameroon: North-West - Youths Armed Against HIV?

Bui (Kumbo)- The United State Task Force in Yaounde and the Mbah Development Association (MBADA), Youths where recently in Mbah, Bamngam, Gwarkang and Ntseni all in Kumbo in Bui Division to sensitise the population on HIV/AIDS and child protection as prerequisites to development. One sentence in this article made me wonder, though. Here is the last paragraph of the article: During the sensitisation campaign, some of the messages echoed were abstinence for youths, fidelity for couples and condoms for unhealthy relationships. However, it was stressed that condoms do not guarantee 100 per cent assurance as it may be wrongly used or used when already obsolete. No, not 100 percent, but "an analysis of studies conducted by the National Institutes of Health found an 85 percent decrease in risk of HIV transmission among consistent users of condoms."* I can tell you that not using condoms is the surest way to spread HIV. No, not abstinence. Sounds like the Bush administration has gotten their idealogical hands all over this program. By connoting "condoms" with "unhealthy relationships," young sexually-active adults will get the message that using condoms is for unhealthy people, whatever "unhealthy" means. They will not use condoms, and continue to have sex anyway. When condoms are portrayed in a negative light and abstinence is the alternative (you know where this is heading), the young are going to succumb to their biological urges and have sex. This means more transmission of the virus and more deaths. *CDC. HIV/AIDS among US Women: Minority and Young Women at Continuing Risk. Atlanta, GA: The Centers, 2002.