:: the invisible cure ::

I subscribe to the Sunday edition of The New York Times, and I always read the Book Review first. Today, a particular book caught my eye in a small mention on page 24 ("Paperback Row"). The book? The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS. Here's an excerpt from this New York Times review, dated July 29, 2007:

"Halfway through 'The Invisible Cure,' Helen Epstein writes about finding a long-forgotten document in a small research library in Canada. Reading through the paper, Epstein says, 'I felt as though a small stick of dynamite had gone off in my head.' Epstein had unearthed a rare copy of a detailed study on the sexual behavior of Ugandans in the late 1980s and early ’90s, a period that coincided with the country’s historic drop in H.I.V. rates. In short, Epstein knew, the research done by Maxine Ankrah, an African-American academic, would give invaluable insights into what had halted the epidemic — insights that could then be applied to other countries with high rates of H.I.V. and AIDS.

Before Epstein’s discovery, Ankrah’s research seemed destined for oblivion. A United Nations AIDS researcher had read it, failed to understand its significance or to credit it and, Epstein recounts, wrongly concluded that an increase in condom use was responsible for the decrease of the H.I.V. rate in Uganda. In reality, according to three later analyses of Ankrah’s study, the primary reason for the decline was completely different: substantial numbers of Ugandans had ended affairs and remained faithful to one partner."

This book doesn't seem to espouse Christianity, yet it does encourage partner fidelity. To take it a step higher, marital fidelity is one aspect of God's design for human life. And seeing as the Gospel is spreading through Uganda like wildfire, it makes The Invisible Cure all the more intriguing. I do believe Ms. Epstein is onto something true.