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Section
U.S. AIDS
plan blurs
prevention
message
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KAMPALA, Uganda —
Beatrice Were thou^t she
did everything ri^t. She was
faithful to her husband and
avoided sex until they mar-
ried.
What she didn’t realize was
that he was not so faithful.
Soon after their first child
was bom, he was infected
with HIV and unwittingly
passed the AIDS-causing
virus to her.
Activists and government
officials say a massive U.S.
AIDS relief program has
shifted the emphasis fiom
condoms toward abstinence
and fidelity, especially among
the young — an approach they
consider imrealistic in a
country where a million peo
ple have already died and an
estimated 900,000 are infect
ed.
“By assumption, you are
saying that when you are
married, marriage is a safety
net—which is not true,” said
Were, who now campaigns to
protect others with the inter
national anti-poverty group
ActionAid.
U.S. officials say they recog
nize condoms are a key
weapon in the fig^t against
AIDS and have spent mil
lions on them. But they say
prevention information is
more effective when targeted
at the appropriate audience.
Uganda, once one of Afiica’s
most infected countries, is the
author of a groundbreaking
strategy credited with cutting
^ HIV pievaience by more than
half since 1992 to about 7 per
cent. The multi-pronged
fqjproach calls for abstinence
until marriage, being faithful
to one’s partner and consis
tent and correct condom use.
Dr. Sam Okwaie, architect
of the so-called A. B, C plan,
accuses the U.S. President’s
Emeigency Plan for AIDS
Relief of skewing the mes
sage when it was first
laimched in 2003.
Tlie plan, known as PEP-
FAR, “really shifted the
emj^iasis to A and B just
because of the amounts of
money being put into these
programs,” said Okware, a
senior Health Ministry offi
cial.
He said the government
has used funds fiom other
sources to promote condoms.
But an official with the gov
ernment-appointed Uganda
AIDS Commission said absti
nence and fidelity programs
still dcMiiinate. He spoke on
condition of anonymity for
fear of repercussions.
The $15 billion plan
taou^t unprecedented fund
ing for prevention, care and
treatment efforts in Uganda
and 14 other countries.
Dr Marie Dybul, the U.S.
deputy ^obal AIDS coordina
tor in Washington DTC., said
last year, the U.S. govern
ment spent US$9.7 million
(euro7.7 million) on promot
ing abstinence and fidelity in
Uganda, ccaupared to US$6.5
million euro5.2 million) on
ctHidfMii*-^ and related acti\'i-
ties The number of condoms
supplied surged fiom 7 mil
lion to 47 million in the last
five years
‘Tbugh to argue we’re push
ing away fium condoms in
Uganda with numbers like
that,” D>’bul said, but added;
“There is so much misinfor
mation about what our poli
cies aird approach are that 1
wouldn't be surprised it’s
having an impact cai people
in the field”
President Yoweri Museveni,
once a condom champion.
Please see AIDS/3B
tCIie Cliarlotte $)oSt
LIFE
THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2006
BELLERAYMUSICORQ
The late Ray Charleshas a new exhibit in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Ray does country
Exhibit explores R&B genius' down-home side
WE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NASHVILLE. Tbnn.-If
country music was good
enou^ for Ray Charies,
then it was good enough
for other musicians.
The R&B genius record
ed “Modem Sounds in
Coimtry and Western
Music” in 1962, a mile
stone that broadened the
audience for country
music and biou^t new
respSTto the genre.
A new exhibit at the
Country Music Hail of
Fame and Museum helps
explain why ‘T Can’t Stop
Loving You; Ray Charles
and Country Music” opens
March 10 and focuses on
his unexpected passion for
the music.
It shows how he listened
to the Grand Ole Opry
radio show as a child, and
performed Charlie Rich’s
“Behind Closed Doors" for
a Coimtry Music
Tblevision sjg^al a year
before his deatii.
But “Modem Sounds” is
a cornerstone of tiie exhib
it. Tlie album was a phe
nomenal success for
Charles, staying at No. 1
on the Billboard- Pop
Album chart for 14 wedss
Many say it brought
credibility to a musical
form that was thought
inferior and derided as
“hillbilly music.”
Michael Gray associate
museum editor and cq-
curator of the exhibit,
which runs through Dec.
31, 2007, said singers fiom
other genres began look
ing to Nashville for mater
ial after Charles released
his masterpiece.
The display includes
audio from the album,
song manuscripts, sheet
music and photos, as well
as quotes about the record
fiom Loretta Lynn, Willie
Nelson and Billy Joel.
“Country music has been
here forever, but for years
a lot of people who listened
to country music were
ashamed to admit it,”
Lynn said “What I really
think started it booming
was Ray Charles and his
See RAY/2B
Skin Deep looks for safety in beauty aids
WE ASSOCIA TED PRESS
Just because something is derived
fiom a plant, doesn’t mean it’s entire
ly safe for humans to use —especial
ly on your skin. Have you ever heard
of poison ivy?
The Environmental Working
Group created an interactive guide
rating the product safety of persOTial-
care products on its Web site. “Skin
Deep” is a searchable database fea
turing information on more than
14,000 shampoos, lotions, deodor
ants, sunscreens and other products.
“The cosmetics industry is essen
tially a self-regulating industry,”
says Jane Houlihan, the EWG’s vice
president for science. “Companies
are making vastly different deci
sions, and the safety of products vary
widely Some contain products that
are safe to eat, others have carcino
gens that are linked to birth defects,”
Indeed, cosmetics do not need FDA
approval before hitting the market,
though the FDA can seek enforce
ment action. The FDA does have
laws overseeing the labeling of beau
ty products but not the safety stud
ies. That’s left to the companies.
Houlihan says consumers often
base thdr decisions on what you’d
think would be common sense—
petroleum chemicals would be more
dangerous than something that
grows in the garden, for example—
but that’s not always true.
However, Houlihan recommends
organically grown products as gener
ally the safest choice because those
products were grown without pesti
cides. “Eliminating pesticide
residues and eliminating pesticide in
the environment always helps, but
you stiU can’t ensure it’s perfectly
safe for skin or lips.”
The EWG is a nonprofit research
organization specializing in environ
mental investigations.
Muslim files lawsuit against retailer
o
WE ASSOCIAIID PRESS
IOWA CITY, Iowa—A Muslim
woman who claims she was denied
employment after she refused to
remove a head scarf worn for reli
gious reasons is accusing a Des
Moines convenience store chain of
violating her religious rights.
In the lawsuit, Aaliyah Withers-
Johnson claims officials at Git-N-Go
Convenience Stores Inc. told her she
could not woric for the company if she
insisted on wearing the head scarf,
known as a h^ib, worn as part of her
Islamic faith.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District
Court in Des Moines, accuses the
company of racial and religious dis
crimination.
Withers-Johnson, who is black,
claims she wore the scarf to her ini
tial job interview for a position as a
st»e clerk on March 11, 2005, was
offered a position and told to report
six days later few training.
But at the training session,
Withers-Johnson claims she was
immediately pulled aside by a com
pany official and told she would not
be able to start “ because the thing
you are wearing (xi your head," the
lawsuit said
Officials say company pcJicy pro-
THE STOCK MARKET
Traditional Muslim women cover their head and face with a hijib.
hiHts employees fium wearing caps,
scarves w anything on their head
Withers-Johnson told the official
the scarf was required as part of her
faith then asked if she was not being
hired because of it, the lawsuit said.
The officials responded by saying:
“If I let you wear it then everyone
Rease see MUSLIM WOMAN/3B
Exercise may
aid Parkinson's
disease
WE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON-Heather
MacTavish leaped around the cir
cle of drums, singing and waving
her arms to urge the drunmiers
louder, faster
Only a slight tremor in one
hand revealed her Parkinson’s
disease. That and the name-tags
on her drunmiers—a mix of
Parkinson’s patients and brain
researchers, watching
MacTavish kick up h^ orange-
socked heels in the name of sci
ence.
Growing evidence suggests that
exercise—whether it’s sweating
on a treadmill or on a dance
floor—can help Parldnson’s
patients move better and may
even slow the inevitable march of
this degenerative brain disease.
“Even if we can’t reverse things,
I think we still hope that we can
slow down or even stop the pro
gression,” says Michael Zigmond,
a neurobiologist at the University
of Pittsburgh who, with col
leagues in Tfexas, has come up
with some of the most tantalizing
research.
If nothing else, “we have to
keep our bodies in shape for the
next therapy’’ to be discovered,
adds Dr. David Heydrick, a
Marjdand neurologist who also
has Parkinson’s disease and puts
in an hour on the treadmill every
day
The notion is gaining such
ground that when the National
Institutes of Health organized an
international meeting of
Parkinson’s researchers last
month, patients, dance instruc
tors and personal trainers were
invited to tell—and demop-
strate—the benefits they believe
come fiom physical activity of all
kinds.
MacTavish will sometimes
dance for hours at a stretch,
activity she credits with allowing
her to cut in half the daily med
ication she had needed when she
was first diagnosed a decade ago.
It isn’t always easy: Her leg
sometimes freezes, until she
stops trying consciously to move
it.
“If I had music, I didn’t have to
teU my left leg to move, my entire
body starts moving,” explains
MacTavish, 57, of Tlburon, Calif
“As the small motor movements
get more difficult, the larger,
mor^ expansive movements of
dance take over.”
Parkinson’s disease gradually
destroys brain ceUs called neu
rons that produce dopamine, a
chemical crucial for the cellular
signaling that controls muscle
movement. As dopamine levels
drop, symptoms increase;
tremors in the arms, legs and
face; periodically stiff or fiozen
limbs; slow movement; impaired
balance and coordination.
Thda/s treatments can control
tremors, fer at least a while, but
can’t slow the disease’s worsen
ing
Exercise sounds too simple a
remedy But consider that
Parkinson’s puts people into a
downward spiral; The harder it
becomes to move normally, the
less patients try to move. Quickly
their muscles become weak, mak
ing it harder for the remaining
neurons to force them to move.
More intriguing is evidence
that exercise actually may exert a
brain-protective effect:
University of Texas, Austin,
researchers found that forcing
rats to exercise limbs with
Parkinson-like damage pre
served their ability to move those
legs.
• Building on that work,
See EXERCISE/2B