Learn more about microbicides

This Wednesday, Oct. 26, Dr. Laurie Sylla of Yale University will be speaking about the AIDS epidemic, and the current development of microbicides.

HIV/AIDS has become the most devastating epidemic in recent history. The statistics are staggering. Since 1981, over twenty million have died from HIV/AIDS and there are now thirty-eight million people living with the disease throughout the world.

The face of AIDS is becoming the African woman, accounting for sixty percent of HIV infections in Africa. It is a battle against both biological and social problems that causes this susceptibility. Women are physically more vulnerable to infection, while social vulnerability stems from their inferior position within society. Women have become helpless against HIV due to inadequate information about AIDS, lack of access to HIV prevention services, lack of prevention methods they can control and lack of a way to prevent the disease while still allowing for them to become mothers. The development of microbicides would provide a tool to aid in their battle for survival.

The term “microbicides” describes a range of products that when applied topically, prevent the sexual transmission of HIV and other STD’s. For those women who don’t have the social or economic power to demand condom use and fidelity, microbicides would provide a powerful prevention and protection tool that doesn’t necessitate their partner’s consent. It has been estimated that the use of only a moderately effective microbicide in lower income countries could prevent two and a half million HIV/STD infections in just three years.

So why aren’t they yet available? Unfortunately, funding microbicides development and clinical research is not in the economic self-interest of large pharmaceutical companies. This leaves the public sector responsible for funding all clinical research. Thus far, public funding has been scarce. The more public support and funding that can be given, the faster we can expect women to have access to one of the most hopeful prospects for the prevention of HIV infection in throughout the world. To learn more, come see Dr. Sylla speak on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7p.m. in PAC004, or email bwilliams@wesleyan.edu.