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U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• News Briefs
Pennsylvania Health Department Stops Promoting Religious-Based AIDS Brochure
March 14, 2003 Questions from an online news service have prompted the
Pennsylvania Department of Health to remove a religious-themed
AIDS pamphlet from the brochures it promotes on its Web site. The
15-page pamphlet "A Christian Response to AIDS" was intended to
educate readers about AIDS "from a Christian viewpoint,"
according to the Web site. The publication quotes Bible verses to
urge compassion for people with HIV/AIDS. The department decided
to review whether the brochure was appropriate after Capitolwire,
a Harrisburg-based online state government news service, asked
about it. The department bought 10,000 copies of the brochure in
2002 with a $2,000 grant from the Congressional Black Conference
and provided them to churches as part of efforts to inform black
communities about HIV. Agency spokesperson Richard McGarvey said
the listing has been removed from the Web site, and that while
the remaining 4,000 pamphlets will be distributed to anyone who
wants them, the department does not plan to reorder them. "For a
public Web site, it was decided it wasn't appropriate," McGarvey
told Capitolwire.
Excerpted from:Back to other CDC news for March 14, 2003 Associated Press 03.13.03 This article was provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is a part of the publication CDC HIV/Hepatitis/STD/TB Prevention News Update. |
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