POS: After over a year of not offering female condoms, the Ugandan government has reintroduced them for a small fee. This is an effort to give women, who might have issues demanding condom use among their partners, more prevention options. Now if researchers can only develop effective microbicides...

NEG:  Despite the Ukraine having the highest HIV prevalence in Europe, it is experiencing a 40 to 60 percent price hike on imported condoms. Its domestic condom manufacturers are going bankrupt. Can someone say bailout, please?

POS: The Israeli Ministry of Health ruled that an HIV-positive heart surgeon could return to work without restrictions and without having to disclose to his or her future patients. The ministry reported that 545 of the surgeon’s patients agreed to get tested; all were negative. This reinforced past findings that there is no risk of doctor/patient transmission.

NEG:  In 2008, Wisconsin’s Fond du Lac Regional Clinic refused to perform gall-bladder surgery on Melody Rose once her surgeon learned she was positive. This past February, Rose, with the help of Lambda Legal’s HIV Project, sued the clinic and the doctor. Her case is pending. Cue Law & Order’s gavel sound effect.

POS:  Another nail was pounded into the abstinence-only sex education coffin: A survey found that 82 percent of abstinence pledges retracted their promise and they were less likely to use condoms than those who didn’t take a pledge.

NEG:  Sexually active teens overestimate condom use during sex, say researchers from Emory University in Atlanta. They found evidence of sperm in the vaginal fluid of 34 percent of 186 women who claimed they used condoms consistently. Did I say every time? Ooops, my bad!