6 Ways to Prevent AIDS
6 Ways to Prevent AIDS
Report Heralds Arsenal of New Weapons, but Cautions That Hurdles Remain
Aug. 15, 2006 (Toronto) -- Circumcision, microbicides, drugs, and even diaphragms offer new hope for preventing HIV disease, but the arsenal of weapons won't matter much if they don't reach the people who need them the most.
That's the bottom line of a new report from the Global HIV Prevention Working Group, a panel of 50 international experts convened by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
"We're really putting prevention on the map like we haven't before," says Helene Gayle, MD, co-chair of the Global HIV Prevention Working Group, president and CEO of CARE USA, and co-chair of the International AIDS Conference. "Very soon, we could have new, highly effective ways to prevent many of the 4 million new HIV infections that occur each year."
But Gayle notes that "these tools will have little impact unless we take steps and dramatically scale up -- by completing current trials, mounting new ones, and reaching those most in need," she says.
The report comes at a time when fewer than one in five people at high risk for HIV infection have access to effective prevention.
"For every person getting treatment, four were infected with HIV in the past year alone," Gayle says.
The report, released here at the XVI International AIDS Conference, surveyed the state of research on six promising approaches for the prevention of HIV: male circumcision; cervical barriers such as diaphragms; HIV "prevention pills"; suppression of herpes, which raises the risk of contracting HIV threefold; topical microbicides; and HIV vaccines.
1. Male Circumcision
A trial of over 3,000 young men showed that those who are circumcised are about 60% less likely to be infected with HIV, compared with those who are not circumcised, says Gita Ramjee, PhD, of the HIV Prevention Research Unit of the South Africa Medical Research Unit.
And another study predicted that widespread implementation of male circumcision could avert 2 million new infections in sub-Saharan Africa alone.
But circumcisions must be safely performed by trained health providers -- something that is lacking in many developing countries, the report notes.
6 Ways to Prevent AIDS
Report Heralds Arsenal of New Weapons, but Cautions That Hurdles Remain
Aug. 15, 2006 (Toronto) -- Circumcision, microbicides, drugs, and even diaphragms offer new hope for preventing HIV disease, but the arsenal of weapons won't matter much if they don't reach the people who need them the most.
That's the bottom line of a new report from the Global HIV Prevention Working Group, a panel of 50 international experts convened by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
"We're really putting prevention on the map like we haven't before," says Helene Gayle, MD, co-chair of the Global HIV Prevention Working Group, president and CEO of CARE USA, and co-chair of the International AIDS Conference. "Very soon, we could have new, highly effective ways to prevent many of the 4 million new HIV infections that occur each year."
But Gayle notes that "these tools will have little impact unless we take steps and dramatically scale up -- by completing current trials, mounting new ones, and reaching those most in need," she says.
The report comes at a time when fewer than one in five people at high risk for HIV infection have access to effective prevention.
"For every person getting treatment, four were infected with HIV in the past year alone," Gayle says.
6 Promising Routes to HIV Prevention
The report, released here at the XVI International AIDS Conference, surveyed the state of research on six promising approaches for the prevention of HIV: male circumcision; cervical barriers such as diaphragms; HIV "prevention pills"; suppression of herpes, which raises the risk of contracting HIV threefold; topical microbicides; and HIV vaccines.
1. Male Circumcision
A trial of over 3,000 young men showed that those who are circumcised are about 60% less likely to be infected with HIV, compared with those who are not circumcised, says Gita Ramjee, PhD, of the HIV Prevention Research Unit of the South Africa Medical Research Unit.
And another study predicted that widespread implementation of male circumcision could avert 2 million new infections in sub-Saharan Africa alone.
But circumcisions must be safely performed by trained health providers -- something that is lacking in many developing countries, the report notes.
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