Your editorial, "3X5: A daft But Crucial Dream" (10/13/04) implies that with enough money for drugs, the plague of AIDS would be ended. Your prejudice is incredible. Of course drugs can help but even the extremely expensive cocktails available to wealthy countries only delay the inevitable course of a fatal disease. The only way to stop the epidemic is to change behavior so that it does not spread. Uganda has shown us the way with a concerted effort to promote sexual abstinence before marriage and faithfulness in marriage. Their record is phenomenal with a drop in the HIV rate from a high of 18% of the total population to only 6.2% in 2002. The reason you do not cite this near miracle is fairly obvious -- the leaders of Uganda are outspoken Christians.

Ross S. Olson MD

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