Microbicides
Reassessing HIV Prevention
Major shift in HIV prevention priorities needed
Authors:
Malcolm Potts; Daniel Halperin; Douglas Kirby
Publisher:
American Association for the Advancement of Science , 2008
This evidence review paper from researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of California, Berkeley gathers and compares evidence on effectiveness of a range of HIV prevention strategies. The paper finds that the most common HIV prevention strategies (condom promotion, HIV testing, treatment of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), vaccine and microbicide research, and abstinence) are having a limited impact on the predominantly heterosexual epidemics found in Africa.
The paper argues that male circumcision and reducing multiple sexual partnerships, two currently underfunded and ignored interventions, would have a greater impact on preventing the spread of HIV in high prevalence parts of Africa. The authors conclude that around one per cent of total requested funding is for circumcision and probably only a fraction of "community mobilization and mass media" and "workplace" efforts would be focused on reducing multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships. This balance needs to be reassessed. [adapted from author]
