By Caroline Hooper-Box
American President George Bush's administration has been accused of using "pseudoscience" to dispute the efficacy of condoms in preventing the spread of Aids.
And while the United States has pledged $15-billion (about R100-billion) to fight Aids in Africa, it has insisted that a third of the money be used for sexual abstinence and monogamy programmes.
The moves have been criticised as being the result of the US administration bowing to pressure from right-wing religious movements. A group of more than 60 top US scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, accused the Bush administration of manipulating and distorting science for political purposes.
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'Statistics show condoms really have not been very effective' In a 46-page report and open letter, the scientists cited several examples, charging the Bush administration with bending science and technology to policy.
During Bush's term in office the US federal health agency Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's fact sheet on proper condom use has been replaced with a warning emphasising condom failure rates.
At the centre of the row is US Global Aids Co-ordinator Randall Tobias, former head of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, who said "statistics show condoms really have not been very effective".
Speaking in Berlin at a Global Business Coalition on HIV and Aids 2004 awards function in April, Tobias said condoms had been "the principal prevention device for the last 20 years, and I think one needs only to look at what's happening with the infection rates in the world to recognise that has not been working", Agence France-Presse reported.
A New York Times editorial last week said this showed the Bush administration was following the "tragic example of putting ideology above medical science", set by president Thabo Mbeki in the dispute over HIV and Aids.
'Tobias is wrong, and not just about the science'
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