EW YORK - Speaking in unusually explicit terms for a politician, Vice President Al Gore said in an interview yesterday that the only way to combat AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is to change sexual behavior by ''stigmatizing promiscuity rather than the suffering from the disease.''
While it is difficult for Americans to tell Africans how to live their lives, Gore said, the sub-Saharan nations must accept the use of condoms, sex education, and abstinence. He said truckers must learn to refrain from visiting prostitutes, and people must speak out against the prevalence of rape and the sexual exploitation of young girls by their male teachers.
''If we are not successful in addressing this crisis, then the horrendous consequences will haunt us throughout the 21st century,'' Gore said.
The vice president stepped off the campaign trail and into the spotlight of the United Nations Security Council yesterday to announce that the Clinton administration is seeking an additional $100 million from Congress to fund programs aimed at preventing the spread of AIDS in Africa and Asia. That would bring the total US commitment to fighting the deadly virus overseas to $325 million annually.
In Africa, AIDS is spread primarily through heterosexual relations, and a growing number of observers say they believe that sexual behavior is at the root of the epidemic. At the United Nations, Gore concentrated his remarks regarding the disease as an international threat to world security. But in his interview with the Globe, he discussed the behavior that must change in order to beat back the crisis.
''More people will die of AIDS in the first decade of the 21st century than all the soldiers killed in all the wars throughout the 20th century,'' Gore said.
''It is a security issue, it is a heartbreaking issue, it is an issue that threatens every person in the world in one way or another even if only indirectly, and it must be confronted,'' he said.
Indeed, it was the first time that the Security Council, which was established after World War II to prevent future wars, had ever taken up a health pandemic. It was also the first time a sitting vice president presided over the international body.
According to the United Nations, 22 million people in sub-Saharan countries are infected with the AIDS virus. More than 12 million lives have already been lost and 11,000 new cases are diagnosed a day. By some counts, there are 11 million orphans as a result of AIDS. And in Zimbabwe, many funeral homes are open 24 hours a day because of the high death rate.
A Boston Globe series last October detailed the links between sexual behavior in Africa and the spread of the deadly disease.
The Rev. Eugene Rivers, a Boston minister and major player in the effort to combat AIDS in Africa, was at the United Nations yesterday to meet with Gore and hear his address. Rivers said $10 billion is needed for more health clinics, more drug treatments, and the purchase of medication.
''I think that's an improvement, but it's inadequate,'' Rivers said of the administration's funding announcement. ''We need comparable levels of financial support such as was given to Kosovo.''
Most of the US dollars would go toward education and prevention programs. The funds would also cover AIDS tests and blood screening programs, and triple the amount spent on an inexpensive drug that blocks the virus from being passed to infants during breast feeding. Some funding would help pay for the care of the children orphaned by AIDS.
In the Globe interview, Gore agreed with Rivers that the money was not nearly enough.
''I'd like to see every nation make the kind of commitment the US has made to help Africa,'' Gore said. ''And I'd like to see the kind of transformation in the African societies suffering from this disease that Rev. Gene Rivers and others have called for.''
Gore repeatedly praised Uganda for the steps that nation has taken in promoting the use of condoms, sex education, and the open discussion of how to prevent transmission of the disease.
''AIDS is relatively difficult to transmit from one person to another,'' Gore said. ''There has to be an exchange of bodily fluids. Once that simple fact is understood clearly, then the only other thing that is needed is widespread awareness and the constant reinforcement of the public knowledge of what steps interrupt the transmission.''
That means, Gore said, talking about it.
''It means providing condoms. ... It means promoting responsible sexual activities and habits, it means abstinence for those who can practice that approach.''
The United States cannot go into African countries and just tell people what to do, he said.
''It is in some ways difficult for Americans to tell Africans what needs to be done here, because for years there has been not only a stigma associated with the disease in Africa, but also a resentment of anybody from a wealthy, developed nation trying to give advice to poor, underdeveloped nations struggling with this crisis,'' he said.
