Saturday, July 5, 2008

In the June 30 op-ed "Let My People Go, AIDS Profiteers," the Rev. Sam Ruteikara correctly emphasized the need for the President's Emergency Plan for HIV-AIDS Relief to focus on prevention and behavioral changes to halt new HIV infections. But his reference to a "suspicious statistic attacking marriage" confuses HIV incidence and prevalence, tainting his conclusions.

The unsavory statistic -- 42 percent -- refers to the portion of all new HIV infections in Uganda that have occurred among married couples, and it is based on Uganda's 2004-05 HIV/AIDS Sero-Behavioral Survey. Similar statistics are found in other African countries. The Lancet medical journal recently reported that most new HIV infections in Zambia (55 percent) and Rwanda (93 percent) take place within marriage or cohabitation.

The incidence rates are higher for married couples than sex workers, not because of political plotting, as implied, but because Uganda and other countries have more married couples than sex workers in their general population.

Far worse, however, is Mr. Ruteikara's implication that marriage provides women a safe haven from HIV. Power inequalities within marriage as well as different social roles and expectations place married women in Africa and elsewhere at risk of HIV infection. Data from the Uganda survey make this case: 2.6 percent of married women reported having two or more partners in the past 12 months, compared with 29.8 percent of married men.

As researchers, we do not attack the institution of marriage. We shed light on realities such as HIV within marriages and inequalities between women and men so we can better understand how HIV spreads and save more lives.

GEETA RAO GUPTA

President

International Center for Research on Women

Washington