“Cash for safe sex” program hopes to stop AIDS in Tanzania

William Atkins
Thursday, 15 May 2008 20:13

Science - Health

The FT writer, Andrew Jack (London, England), states that Carol Medline (University of California, San Francisco) is one of the researchers involved in the World Bank study.

Medline states, “We hope this ‘reverse prostitution’ will make people think hard about the long-term consequences of their short-term behaviour.”

The $45 payments are being used along with counseling to, hopefully, help reduce HIV infections in Tanzania. The researchers are especially concerned with the plight of young women in Africa, who are especially vulnerable with getting STDs.

The study is being conducted by the Ifakara Health Research and Development Centre in Tanzania, along with researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, San Francisco, and the World Bank.

The test program in Tanzania by the World Bank is being evaluated with regards to its ability to complete its goal, along with being considered on the basis of ethics and morality.

Obviously paying people not to engage in unsafe sex, which has already been called “reverse prostitution,” is a technique that may indeed raise a few eyebrows in the world community. On the other hand, its efforts may valiently help reduce the spread of AIDS in Tanzania, in Africa, and all over the world.

An interesting commentary appears on the University of Oxford website "Reverse Prostitution: cognitive biases and conditional cash transfers."

Hopefully, the next three years will bring a clear consensus as to whether the project is working or not, and whether the public supports or rejects such actions.