'ready' to have sex. We also heard in some areas that if women were thought to be too wet or turned on during sex, then their partners equated this with

being promiscuous, and often women would be sent away from their village to be 're-educated'. In some trials in different African contexts, some people enjoyed the lubrication a microbicide gave them (both women and men) and in others women and/or men were put off. There are no easy answers here.
So what about the future?
Lori Heise from the International Partnership for Microbicides told us "not to be impatient, but not to be patient either". The Rockefeller Foundation has pledged $15m to International Partnership over the next 5 years, the British government another £1.5m, and the Dutch government €8m. It is only in the second generation of microbicides that we might see a private investor, or pharmaceutical company getting into the market. This could be as long away as 2012, probably longer.
Over the last two years, the US Congress has committed $40 million to microbicide research and development in general, and this February UK overseas development minister Claire Short pledged £16million. US Secretary-General Kofi Annan now talks about microbicides whenever he talks about HIV prevention.
These things are testimony to the hard work of microbicides activists everywhere. We need many tools in HIV prevention. There is no cure-all solution, and probably never will be. Treatments, male condoms, female condoms, microbicides and vaccines will all play their part.
Microbicides and positive people

page 4 of 5

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

home

contents of issue 80/81
back issues
the gazette
recipes
small ads
contacting us
weblinks

The majority of this conference centred on keeping negative people negative. Only two presentations in three days focused (and I use that term