September 2018

Oct 01, 2018

#AIDS2018: Prevention – Prevention – Prevention

Dear aidsfocus readers,

Yes, we actually already have the “silver bullet” to get HIV under control. During a session at the 2018 International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, the Swede Anders Nordström countered the statement by Executive Director of the Global Fund, Peter Sands, that we are still awaiting the “silver bullet” in the fight against AIDS. For Nordström, Ambassador for Global Health at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, this “silver bullet” is condoms. However, promoting the use of condoms has been gravely neglected in recent years. The audience applauded Nordström’s intervention! According to him, the use of condoms can prevent 80% of infections which makes it all the more incomprehensible why only five condoms per year are available on average to an African male. Prevention is in crisis!

Critics maintain that obvious and economic measures such as the provision of condoms and associated information campaigns are being eclipsed by medical solutions. Insufficient health education is not, however, just a problem in African countries: in Europe, too, there is a general lack of awareness about the topic of HIV prevention – that was the complaint of a group of young people from Hamburg. A few years ago they seized the initiative and started an awareness campaign at their high school. Knowledge about HIV was shockingly low and, for most pupils, AIDS was synonymous with “gays, drugs and Africa”. The young Hamburg activists wanted to address this intolerable state of affairs and started a campaign which has now grown into a big success. Workshops and condom provision went hand-in-hand with an invitation to young people to get themselves tested. The latter proved to be virtually impossible: due to a lack of alternatives, young people wanting to be tested were referred to so-called hotspot services provided for sex workers.

Is a condom machine the solution?

Out of this initially local project has grown the successful worldwide organisation “Youth against AIDS (YAA)”, which this year was an official partner of the 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam. YAA’s commitment – which is now receiving prominent support from Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, Director of the HIV/AIDS Department of the WHO and member of YAA’s advisory board, as well as the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé – continues unabated. In Amsterdam, the organisation confidently announced alongside young people from around the world: “We are the generation that can end AIDS!” YAA’s recipe for success continues to include the distribution of condoms: by mid-2018 they had condom dispensers installed in around 100 German schools to facilitate the “barrier-free” purchase of reasonably priced condoms which even young people in Europe can find difficult to afford from their own pocket-money. The response has been huge, as have requests for more condom dispensers. Could this also be a recipe for success in schools in Africa? It would certainly seem to be something that is worth exploring.

You can read about a small selection of the important topics discussed at AIDS2018 in our Topic of the Month.

Martina Staenke

Communication Manager, Medicus Mundi Switzerland
mstaenke@medicusmundi.ch