Newly-elected AFAO vice-president Bridget Haire has a timely piece on the ABC Science website about HIV prevention technologies, calling for regulatory action to make these available in Australia.
If a person with HIV consistently takes effective anti-HIV medication, the chances of them infecting a sexual partner are close to zero. The condom, while remaining cheap, effective and sometimes convenient, is now just one part of the HIV prevention toolbox rather than the whole kit and kaboodle — in theory at least.
But in practice, access to these new forms of HIV prevention is constrained by regulatory systems, concerns about cost, and a fear of new technologies eroding the ‘condom culture’ that saw the whole scale adoption of condoms by gay men worldwide in the mid-80s, who perceived the threat of HIV, and improvised a form of protection.
Also recommended:
- Why CEOs oppose HIV travel bans: CEOs of Levi Strauss and Kenneth Cole explain ‘they’re bad for business’
- MPs defeat humanitarian drug exports bill: a Canadian law that would have made it easier for Canadian drug companies to export generic HIV drugs to people in need has been defeated, by just seven votes.