Health: The Virtues Of Partner Reduction

HIV-prevention efforts, especially when they aim their messages at young people, can appear to be a battle between promoting the value of abstinence and touting that of condom use. According to an article in the British Medical Journal, campaigns often miss the obvious. There would be no global AIDS pandemic if people had sex with fewer partners. Yet the role of fidelity--or as researchers call it, partner reduction--is neglected. Limiting sex partners, according to an accompanying editorial, is "good common sense--and good epidemiology."

--By David Bjerklie