Reporting on the role of circumcision in the “combination prevention” discussed during the 2008 AIDS conference, Roger Peabody from Aidmaps noted that “In response to several criticisms of the recommended roll-out of circumcision, Catherine Hankins from UNAIDS insisted that circumcision had to be seen as part of combination prevention” – in other words, it is one extra choice, rather than the replacement for another intervention.”
But in the same session, Mogomotsi Supreme Mafalapitsa noted that circumcision is often imbued with religious and cultural meanings, and very often forms part of …

Thailand is often hailed as a success story in the fight against HIV and AIDS when back in the 90s the Thai government implemented a 100% condom policy in brothels and amongst sex workers. But there is an area where Thailand has failed deplorably, it is in providing treatment and care to its injecting drug users of whom half are thought to be HIV-positive.
“The people we work with who are drug users, many of them injecting drug users, almost all of them are HIV-positive, yet none of them have access …

Pictures courtesy of Stephen Hutcheon.

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Dutch researchers from the Amsterdam Health Services have found that Gay men who “lost it” when using condoms are more prone to engage in unsafe sex the next time they have sex. The syndrome has been coined, COndom Induced Erectile Dysfunction or COINED.
In a study of 435 Gay men in Amsterdam, 10% frequently experienced COINED with a casual partner and 7% with a steady partner. As a consequence, the rate of unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) reached 18% with casual partners and 17% with steady partners
The important point here is that …

Few people are aware that woman can also use condoms, called female condom or femidom and that the technology was developed 15 years ago. Then hailed as the tool that would finally empower women (in a long line of other empowering gimmicks) the femidon failed to live to its promise.
“This is a 15-year scandal born of ignorance and inertia,” said Mary Robinson (Oxfam’s honorary president) the Globe and Mail reports. “We now know that millions of women might have been spared HIV, unwanted pregnancies, and empowered themselves in the process, …