Dr James Chin who headed Global Program on Aids unit from 1987-1992 asserted that HIV/Aids activists are circulating ‘misconceptions’ about who is at risk. In his new book, he has advocated that population outside Africa are not likely to catch HIV/Aids because it is limited to certain high-risk groups.
He said that HIV pervasiveness is low in most populations throughout the world and can be expected to remain low because the numbers in groups whose behavior puts them at high risk limits infection rates.
He further said that HIV rates are higher only in sub- Saharan Africa because of unprotected sex outside the marriage. While in other parts of the world, HIV is seen only in men who have sex with other men, intravenous drug users and female sex workers.
Writing in ‘The Aids Pandemic’, Dr Chin says,
‘By refusing to accept the fact that HIV is very difficult to transmit sexually without the highest levels of sexual risk behaviours, Aids programmes have avoided labelling some populations as being more promiscuous than others.’
And he says the failure to recognize this means that scarce public health resources in countries where HIV prevalence is low are being wasted on prevention programs being targeted at the public, when it is the high-risk groups who should be targeted.
He added that the facts have been ‘minimised and ignored’ by UNAids and Aids activists because it is ‘politically and socially more acceptable’ to say HIV risk behaviors are present in all populations.
Experts from UK who viewed them as incorrect, however, did not accept his suggestions.
Dr Purnima Mane, director of policy evidence and partnerships at UNAids has retaliated by saying that,
‘UNAids data is not influenced by political or fundraising agendas.’
Lisa Power, chief of policy at the UK’s Terrence Higgins Trust said Dr Chin’s views may have been accurate 10 to 15 years ago, but were not true now.
