Brazil to U.S.: Keep Your Money

[Beestie]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

The prostitutes and AIDS are everywhere, but in Brazil, the prostitutes get tested.

Sex with one or fewer partners is not a government strategy.

A government strategy - public policy - consists of many things: A media blitz about AIDS - What it is, what it can do, how one catches it, how to avoid it, how to find out if you have it and what to do if you have it; Free testing for anyone who wants it and not just sex workers. The male infection rate is FOUR times the female infection rate so testing only the sex workers is to miss 80% of the carriers. Testing everyone means that showing up for a test doesn't automatically characterize someone as a sex worker as it would if only sex workers were tested which has the effect of discouraging at least a percentage of them from testing. Free treatment for those without insurance. Its a public health hazard and the cost of treating the infected is far less than the cost of a rise in the infection rate.

These are just a few examples of public policy initiatives that could be implemented and have been at one time or place or another. The thing is, they are all neutral to the legality of prostitution. And since legalizing something tends to increase its likelihood, than whatever AIDS is slipping through in spite of the efforts to contain it will increase by a factor equal to the increase in post-legalization sex-for-sale activity.

In jag's examples, legalization was part of a much broader public policy and budget initiative but legalization gets all the credit. Awareness, Free treatment, Condom programs, a media Blitzkrieg, etc., etc., etc., are all just ignored as having a bearing on the post-legalization decline.

The tactic of legalizing prostitution to lower the AIDS rate is also not, by itself, a strategy.