UK policy on Aids leaves US isolated

[kskiska]

Minister rejects Bush reliance on abstinence, and backs generics use


The UK yesterday signalled a major rift with the United States over its Aids policies, publicly rejecting the Bush doctrine that sexual abstinence is the best way to stop the spread of the pandemic.

The international development minister, Gareth Thomas, also made it clear the UK did not support the US over its reluctance to endorse the use of cheaper, generic drugs to fight the disease.

Arriving at the International Aids conference yesterday, where America has been relentlessly attacked by campaigners and criticised by UN agencies, Mr Thomas made it clear that the UK was neither prepared to fall in with conservative American thinking nor sit on the sidelines.

His intervention came ahead of the launch by the prime minister next Tuesday of the government's own £1.5bn Aids plan. "We work with the Americans in a whole variety of ways, but we have a difference of view on abstinence-only campaigns," said Mr Thomas.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,1262718,00.html