Religious Leaders Talk AIDS Prevention (Won't Endorse Contraception)

[Khephra]

CAIRO, Egypt -- Religious leaders on Monday debated methods to halt the spread of AIDS -- a usually taboo subject in the conservative Arab world -- but they stopped short of agreeing to recommend the use of contraceptives to prevent the disease.

More than 80 religious leaders, Muslim and Christian, met at a United Nations sponsored conference on AIDS and HIV, the virus that causes it.

They acknowledged "the medical call for the use of different preventive means," but would not endorse the use of contraceptives that the United Nations recommends as a means to cut infection rates.

"It is not that easy to challenge centuries of certain positions," said Khadija Moalla, an official with the United Nations Development Program who focuses on the Arab world.

She said the conference was necessary "because policy-makers were really scared of religious leaders. It was their alibi for not working on AIDS or even doing small things."

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/wire/sns-ap-mideast-aids,0,6885052.story?coll=sns-ap-health-headlines