Planned Parenthood | Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund

by Anna
Web Correspondent
Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund 

The idea of World AIDS Day, which occurs every year on December 1, is a sad one. A dynamic reminder of the world HIV/AIDS crisis in the form of a day entirely devoted to the cause is disheartening (particularly on a Saturday) in part because it is so necessary. Looking on the bright side, though, a new medical innovation that seeks to prevent AIDS transmission is becoming more and more feasible.

This technology concerns microbicides, compounds that would be applied to the vagina or rectum in the form of a cream or gel. The chemicals in the medication would protect against spread of HIV and other STDs. In light of the passage this summer of the Microbicide Development Act of 2007, which increased the funds provided for microbicide research by the United States government, there is a strong probability that an effective microbicide could be available within five to seven years. Scientists are already trying out 30 microbicide products (pdf), and 10 of these varieties have been tested in animals and found safe and effective. The products are now being tested on humans, and should these trials go well, one of the 10 might find its way to the public sooner rather than later.

One important thing to recognize about this technology is that it has advantages that condoms do not. A woman would be able to use a microbicide without the consent or even knowledge of her sexual partner, which could prove enormously beneficial for women (and women throughout the world do find themselves in this situations) whose sexual partners simply refuse to wear a condom. It would be a huge advantage for a woman to have a dependable mode of protection every time she needs it. Women are the fasted growing demographic of HIV/AIDS victims, due primarily to the fact that HIV is more easily transmitted from male to female than from female to male. When we consider this growth of HIV cases among women, the importance of putting prevention into the hands of females becomes clear.

Another crucial point is that 95 percent of people infected with HIV/AIDS live in developing countries, and the simplicity of microbicides would make them easy to distribute and use across the globe. They would be universally acceptable as well; while some societies are ideologically or religiously opposed to condoms, microbicides do not constitute birth control and could therefore be an acceptable preventative technique in these communities.

True, microbicides don’t do much to help those already inflicted with HIV/AIDS—and caring for those people is another concern altogether, one that has been neglected in part because so many of them lack resources to adequate health care—but prevention is just as crucial as treatment if we’re looking for a way to alleviate all aspects of the epidemic. It’s hard to argue with the fact that never getting HIV/AIDS in the first place is the best possible outcome.

technorati tags: microbicide, sexual health, WorldAIDSDay, STIs