Can abstinence cure AIDS?

what do you think are the pros or cons to advocating abstinence in order to prevent HIV/AIDS? I am looking for serious, non-fanatical opinions please. thanks!

Abstinence is a start, but it isn't a cure. Let's face it, abstinence has proven not to be effective. Kids in middle & high school have taken pledges to remain abstinent until marriage and studies have shown that young folks who choose to remain abstinent have increased incidence of oral sex, anal sex, and mutual masturbation, since technically you lose your virginity with vaginal sex. However, HIV/AIDS can be transmitted through oral and anal sex, and as a result, we have many young people testing positive for HIV.

Here are some statistics:

More than half of teenagers are virgins until they are at least 17 years of age.

By the time they reach the age of 20, 20%of boys and 24% of girls have not had sexual intercourse.

The largest study of adult sexual behavior found that only 6.9% of men and 21% of women aged 18 to 59 had their first intercourse on their wedding night.

Many virgins are sexually involved. In one study of urban students in the ninth through the twelfth grades, 47% were virgins. More than a third of virgin male and female adolescents had engaged in some form of heterosexual genital sexual activity in the past year:

29% of virgins had engaged in masturbation of a partner of the opposite gender.

31% had been masturbated by a partner of the opposite gender.

9% had engaged in fellatio with ejaculation with a partner of the opposite gender.

10% had engaged in cunnilingus with a partner of the opposite gender.

1% had engaged in anal intercourse with a partner of the opposite gender.

Lately in the news:
NEW YORK, NY鈥?After years of delay in its release, a federally supported evaluation of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs funded under the 1996 federal welfare reform law has proven the programs ineffective in changing teens鈥?sexual behavior. The report, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research Inc. on behalf of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found no evidence that abstinence-only programs increased rates of sexual abstinence. Also, students in the abstinence-only programs had a similar number of sexual partners as their peers not in the programs, as well as a similar age of first sex.

鈥淭his report should serve as the final verdict on the failure of the abstinence-only industry in this country,鈥?said William Smith, vice president for public policy of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS). 鈥淚t shows, once again, that these programs fail miserably in actually helping young people behave more responsibly when it comes to their sexuality,鈥?Smith continued.

I don't think it can totally cure aides but it will help. Remember you can get aides by coming in contact with an infected presons blood or by sharing drug needles so abstinence would not totally take care of the problem.

it would ,but with our human bodies that have many desires ,how would that be possible for ever to abstain

Unless you plan on presenting another activity to take the place of sex, I believe that abstinence in and of itself won't work. How about monogamy?

It could help a little, but there are other ways to get HIV/AIDS besides sex, like with dirty needles and blood drinking rituals.

No...the simple truth is abstinence can't cure it...all abstinence can do is prevent you from getting it from sexual contact. Right now there is no "cure" for AIDS.

It's one of the most certain ways to avoid contact, but you have to avoid blood to blood contact in any form. There are lots of sites on the web to get educated on this.

No, abstinence will not "cure" AIDS but it would help prevent the spread of HIV. The obvious pro would be some affect on the number of new cases of HIV. The cons are that it won't cure existing cases of AIDS and abstinence would eventually push us into extinction and then there's the matter of compliance.

It's a very utopian idea. It's not realistic, especially throughout Africa and Asia where AIDS is most rampant.

Nice try, though.

There is no cure for AIDS, or HIV- the virus which causes AIDS. The best to avoid contracting the HIV virus is through abstinence.

I believe first and foremost in abstinence, but total abstinence will never happen in our lifetime, so I highly stress the use of condoms.

Also, sex (vaginal, oral or anal) is not the only way to spread the HIV virus. The virus can also be spread through sharing needles and syringes with someone who has the virus and to a babies exposure to his or her HIV-positive mother during pregnancy or birth or through breast feeding.

Nothing can cure AIDS because it's a viral disease. But they're working on a cure right now. They think that if they can make a copy of the CCR5- Delta 32 gene that they might be able to create vaccinations and antibiotics maybe even cures.