Male infidelity is a fact of life and women are at increased risk of AIDS because governments refuse to accept this reality, a new Columbia University study says. The report's authors say society should get real about the 'monogamy myth' and work to make extramarital sex safer, instead of just trying to prevent it.
Studies around the world showed married women at heightened risk of infection with HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, because of the public and official state of denial.
“Saying that ‘be faithful’ will protect married women is not true – unilateral monogamy is not an effective prevention strategy,” says researcher Jennifer S. Hirsch, PhD, associate professor of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
"We might find men’s persistent and widespread participation in extramarital sex to be troubling – but it’s a deeply rooted aspect of social organization, and one that is unlikely to be easily changed. Public health programs alone can’t stop extramarital sex, so we need to think about how to reduce the risk.”
"This study has direct implications for the types of [disease] prevention programs we should be supporting,” says Hirsch, the lead author of the report, which has been published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Further Reading: Interview with Pamela Druckerman author of 'Lust in Translation: The Rules of Infidelity from Tokyo to Tennessee'
