Teaching the ABCs: AIDS Prevention

Harvard anthropologist Edward C. "Ted" Green, a supporter of the "ABCs" -- abstinence, be faithful, or use condoms -- approach to AIDS prevention, has been appointed to the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary of state for global affairs, have endorsed abstinence as a means of AIDS prevention, especially in Africa and the Caribbean. But Green, at the forefront of calling attention to the ABCs approach, stressed "it is not 'abstinence only' or 'condoms only.' Both are needed. There is a need for condoms if A and B fail. Some people will never change their behavior." While some high-risk groups like prostitutes are unlikely to change their behavior and need condoms, Green said, Uganda's experience with the "B" approach of monogamous relationships and fidelity in marriage shows that a general population can and will change its behavior.

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