Jokin de Irala. PHOTO: Manuel Castells

Affirming Love, Avoiding Aids. What Africa can teach the west, a book by Jokin de Irala, Associate Dean of research of the School of Medicine of the University of Navarra, has obtained the first award for the best book awarded by The Catholic Press Association in its annual awards.

The institution, which brings together the Catholic press in the U.S. and Canada, has recognized the value of the work to show the work that is being done in Africa to curb AIDS. Likewise, its publication - The Catholic Journalist - highlights the role of the book "for the West to learn from the research on AIDS that has been developed on the African continent".

Specifically, the book deals with the problems of the disease from its discovery in 1981 to the present day, including a description of the virus, its transmission routes and the status of the epidemic on a global scale. Jokin de Irala and co-author Hanley Mateo then focus on current preventive responses and their effectiveness. They analyze the effectiveness of two measures that they consider fundamental, such as delaying the onset of sexual relations and mutual monogamy: "We collect data from population-based prevention programs such as those carried out in Uganda, Zimbabwe or Kenya, where they have managed to curb the epidemic with these measures that we call risk avoidance. On the other hand, countries that have placed emphasis on promote the use of condoms continue with an uncontrolled epidemic".

According to the author, this status is largely due to risk compensation: "Feeling more protected, people abandon other basic preventive behaviors and the incidence increases".

Dr. de Irala also stresses in his book - now translated into French after being published in English and Spanish as Propóntelo, propóntelo, evitar el sida - the need to make a joint effort with health, educational, cultural and media authorities "to prevent the AIDS pandemic in the simplest and cheapest way possible: with a change in behavior that requires self-control on the part of young people and adults".