October 6, 2006
AIDS ORGS CALL FOR MICROBICIDE DEVELOPMENT
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"When safe, effective vaginal and rectal microbicides are available, they will be very important to sexually active people worldwide, including women and men here in the US," explained Jim Pickett, Director of Public Policy for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, a Global Campaign for Microbicides site. Pickett also co-founded the International Rectal Microbicide Working Group.
Microbicides are products that can prevent transmission of HIV and other infections when used in the vagina or rectum. They include gels, creams, and rings that release drugs slowly over days or weeks, and could give people at risk for HIV - particularly women - new control over HIV prevention.
HIV rates among women worldwide are sky-rocketing. In fact, being female, married, and poor puts a person at significant risk for acquiring the infection, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Married women are not going to practice abstinence a la the Bush Administration's prevention campaigns. People have no control over whether or not their partners are faithful, and gender norms in many places grant men permission to have multiple partners without their partners' knowledge.
The use of condoms requires the consent of a male partner, which may not always be forthcoming, and many women face violence in their relationships on a regular basis. While we continue to challenge these unjust and dangerous circumstances, microbicides offer many women a unique tool for prevention within their immediate reality.
"The ABC's of prevention are just not enough, we all need more tools to help protect ourselves and our partners. And American women, like women around the world, do not have a prevention option they control. Microbicides will put the power of prevention in women's hands for the first time. Passage of the Microbicide Development Act will help focus, energize and accelerate crucial research and development that will make this new tool a reality," Pickett explained.
The Microbicides Development Act (S. 550) would expand and coordinate microbicide activities at the National Institutes of Health (NIH); expedite the development and implementation of a Federal strategic plan for microbicide research; and establish a Microbicide Research and Development Unit within the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. It also calls for regular reporting on microbicide research and development efforts at NIH, CDC, and USAID. More than 60 advocacy and service organizations, including Housing Works from across the country are asking Senators to move the bill during the 109th Congress.
"It is difficult to overestimate the potential impact of this science. Conservative models predict that even a partially-effective microbicide could avert 2.5 million HIV infections over three years," the group stated in a letter to Senators Enzi (R-WY) and Kennedy (D-MA) - Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee.