Headline: Health groups, religious right clash over anti-HIV efforts for prostitutes
Baltimore Sun, August 28, 2005
By David Kohn, Sun Staff

An anti-prostitution crusade by the religious right has collided with the efforts of public health groups to prevent HIV infection among prostitutes and their clients, reported the Baltimore Sun on the front page of its Sunday newspaper. The article focused on PSI's Central America program and whether such programs can protect prostitutes from infection without promoting their vocation.

PSI was criticized in May by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma for two of the activities that educate prostitutes on how to protect themselves against infection. According to PSI, Coburn grossly misrepresented these educational activities which reduce risk and help contain the epidemic.

On July 19, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) cancelled its request for proposals for a new follow-on project and PSI suggested that the Coburn letter may have influenced that decision.

The article reported that Central America's HIV rate is about 1 percent, far less than in many other parts of the world, but is as high as 20 percent among prostitutes. Wrote Kohn, "Last year, PSI's program made contact with 422,000 people in high-risk groups and sold 14 million condoms in the region. In parts of Guatemala, where PSI has significantly expanded its work, HIV infections among prostitutes have fallen by a third. Hans Moerkerk, an official with the United Nations' AIDS office, said the program was one of the best in the region. 'It would be disastrous if it stopped,' he said."

The article pointed out that some Republican senators have disagreed with Sen. Coburn, notably Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, who wrote a letter in July to the USAID administrator asking for USAID to reconsider its decision.