holly burkhalter writes of engaged conservative christian activists in war on AIDS

holly burkhalter's article in FOREIGN AFFAIRS jan/feb 2004 issue "the politics of aids: engaging conservative activists" presents a more positive take on the involvement of evangelical individuals in the war against the spread of AIDS, including:

thanks to recent activism by conservative political and religious groups, AIDS has finally started to gain foreign policy attention... prodded by its conservative evangelical base, the bush administration has pushed AIDS to the forefront of its international agenda, backing record increases in US assistance for AIDS treatment abroad and beginning to address such issues as sex trafficking and the dangers of HIV transmission from unsafe injections and blood transfusions.

turns out, according to burkhalter, that the world health org. (WHO) has recognized that both prevention and treatment measures are necessary to reduce the spread of AIDS; neither alone works as well as when combined.
additionally, burkhalter writes that:

the real turning point in american AIDS policy came when conservative christians made the cause their own

frank graham, in feb 2002, convened the first international christian conference on HIV/AIDS in washington, d.c. "prescription for hope" and called for

treatment of the sick and the dying

during this conference, senator jesse helms confessed his lack of effort in helping victims of AIDS in africa and subsequently penned an op-ed in the washington post pledging to

secure $500 million to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the disease

also, according to burkhalter, a conservative republican senator, jeff sessions of alabama in 2003 built bipartisan support for a safe health care initiative that reversed decades of neglect of the poorest countries in africa.
further, another conservative republican representative, chris smith of n.j:

offered a provision to the AIDS bill that prohibited funding to any organization that did not oppose trafficking and prostitution more generally

...in an effort to reduce such horrors as india's 2.3 million women and girls who are forced into its sex industry generating millions of orphans and/or street children...
nevertheless, william bennett of empower america writes that condom use promotion with distribution alone does not work to reduce HIV prevalence...

african nations that promoted condom use alone...suffer the highest HIV prevalence rates

here in the u.s., the government at the beginning of 2004 was providing $100 million in abstinence education and the family research council suggests that we should extend this policy to africa...

on the grounds that "responsible moral behavior is the first and best line of defense against AIDS, and is the only message we should send young people worldwide"