by Christopher Cappiello

20 million free condoms for Brazil’s Carnaval

Brazilian health officials launched a program Feb. 1 to distribute almost 20 million free condoms during the five-day celebration of Carnaval, the hedonistic celebration in advance of Lent, the pre-Easter season of penance and abstinence.

“We have to let society know the importance of prevention,” Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporão said in a press conference to launch the campaign, according to The Associated Press.

The Carnaval program is part of a wider national HIV-prevention program in Brazil, one of the most aggressive in the world. “We will distribute 600 million male contraceptives this year,” Temporão said. “Everybody should rest assured that the condoms will be made available not only during Carnaval, but throughout the whole year.”

Brazil is home to the world’s largest Roman Catholic population, and church officials have been vocal in their criticism of the government’s prevention program.

“The church has nothing against having fun during Carnaval,” said Bishop Augusto Dias Duarte, “but the banalization of human sexuality is something we cannot tolerate.”

Brazil’s HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs have earned praise from the United Nations and activists around the globe. In addition to making free condoms available, the government guarantees anti-viral medications to all who need them.

Gay-friendly Italian government falls

Following a Senate session that was dramatic and contentious even by the standards of the volatile Italian political system, Italy’s moderate prime minister, Romano Prodi, resigned Jan. 24, after a vote of no confidence made the future of his shaky coalition government untenable.

At press time, it was not clear if President Giorgio Napolitano would call for a quick election in the spring or name an interim government, according to Reuters.

Prodi’s nine-party, center-left coalition was crippled almost from its inception 20 months ago, partly due to the prime minister’s support for same-sex civil partnerships. It was the issue of gay unions that caused the Jan. 24 Senate session to spiral into vicious name-calling, resulting in one senator being taken away on a stretcher.

“If I had a chance, I would have spit in his face,” said Tommaso Barbato, who had to be restrained by Senate colleagues after fellow Udeur Party member Stefano Cusumano reversed his vote to support Prodi, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Party head Barbato reportedly hurled homophobic epiphets at Cusumano, calling him “faggot,” before rushing his desk. Witnesses told Reuters that Cusumano fainted and was carried out on a stretcher.

Prodi’s proposed civil partnership bill was shelved last year when the Vatican-friendly Christian Democrat Party—a vital cog in his coalition—announced their opposition. The bill would have extended pension, health insurance and housing rights to same-sex couples.

“I think Italy does not need any government of national unity, but a government that will get down to work immediately after Italians vote,” former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told Reuters. The colorful and controversial Berlusconi, the wealthiest man in Italy, is considered the leading contender to head a new center-right government. The former leader has close ties to the Vatican and has made it clear that he opposes civil partnerships for same-sex couples.

Swiss safe-sex study stirs controversy

Scientists from the Swiss National AIDS Commission released a Jan. 31 study concluding that people with HIV who are under treatment can safely have unprotected sex with uninfected partners, Agence France-Presse reports.

“These findings come from four different studies,” said Bernard Hirschel, and HIV/AIDS specialist from Geneva’s University Hospital who co-wrote the report. Among the studies contributing to the Swiss panel’s announcement was one conducted in Spain from 1990-2003, with almost 400 heterosexual couples where one member was HIV positive. With the positive partner taking anti-retroviral drugs, and the viral load suppressed in his or her blood for at least six months, none of the uninfected partners contracted the virus (barring the absence of other sexually transmitted diseases).

The Swiss pronouncement also used studies conducted in Brazil and Uganda, and one focusing on pregnant women, with similar findings.

AIDS activists in Europe and North America were alarmed by the Swiss panel’s conclusion, with many pointing out that the studies in question focused on heterosexual couples.

“The real thing missing [from the Swiss report] is about anal sex and getting a new sexually transmitted infection,” said Roger Peabody, of the Terrence Higgins Trust AIDS charity in London, to AFP. “We don’t feel the scientific evidence is conclusive, and there are some key issues that are not covered in this advice.”

UNAIDS, the United Nations’ agency, and the World Health Organization released a joint statement saying they still “strongly recommend a comprehensive package of HIV prevention approaches, including correct and consistent use of condoms.”

“We are not going to be changing in any way our very clear recommendations that people on treatment continue to practice safer sex, including protected sex with a condom, in any relationship,” said Charlie Gilks, the WHO’s director of AIDS treatment, to the AP.