Why was this?

Sex And HIV: Behaviour-Change Trial Shows No Link
The East African (Nairobi)

March 17, 2003

Posted to the web March 19, 2003

By Paul Redfern, Special Correspondent Nairobi

A UK funded trial aimed at reducing the spread of Aids in Uganda by modifying sexual behaviour appears to have had little discernible effect.


The trial, carried out on around 15,000 people in the Masaka region, involved distributing condoms, treating around 12,000 victims of sexually transmitted diseases and counselling.

However, while the trial led to a marked change in sexual behavioural patterns, with the proportion reporting causal sexual partners falling from around 35 per cent to 15 per cent, there was no noticeable fall in the number of new cases of HIV infection, although there was a significant reduction in sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhoea.

The trial results, which were reported in the British medical journal The Lancet, have already aroused some controversy.

The team leader of the trial, Dr Anatoli Kamalai, acknowledged that there was "no measurable reduction" in HIV incidence with "no hint of even a small effect."

Casual sex partners fell from 35% to 15%, but 15% is still high enough. It only takes one person with HIV to pass it on to another.

Also, condoms are not popular in many African nations, so it is possible that individuals opted out of condom use. Those that used condoms may have used them improperly, which would allow the virus to be transmitted.

There are many possibilities.