Bill Clinton made a plea yesterday for a new emphasis on monogamy as a key element in the battle against AIDS. The former U.S. president, not noted for his ability to keep his own marriage vows, said it was very important to change people's attitudes to sex.
In an interview with the BBC, recorded in Africa, Clinton told his interviewer that increasing support for monogamy was not just a problem for the continent worst hit by AIDS, but for the world.
"To pretend we can ever get hold of this without dealing with that -- the idea of unprotected sexual relations with unlimited numbers of partners -- I think would be naive."
Experts believe that although there is no evidence that Africans have more sex, the nature of their sexual relationships may help to explain the high rate of AIDS on the continent. Research suggests there is a higher frequency of overlapping sexual partnerships, creating sexual networks that, from an epidemiological point of view, are more efficient at spreading infection.
Serial monogamy and sporadic one-off sexual encounters, as practised in the West, are less effective at spreading infection.
Clinton said the main challenge to fighting AIDS in Africa was improving health services.
He said the foundation he established to promote better treatment for HIV and AIDS was focusing on cost-effective ways to improve national health systems.
"You can get the universal treatment -- the money's there now, if we spend it most effectively. But we don't have the health-care systems to reach out to people, get them tested and diagnosed in a timely fashion, get them on treatment and do the regular followups."
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