Several clinical trials have demonstrated the benefit of circumcision in reducing the risk of HIV infection. One of the explanations put forward is that the foreskin is rich in a particular type of cell the HIV virus likes to infect. By getting rid of the foreskin, the risk of HIV infection is reduced.
If this is true then the size of the foreskin should matter too, with a higher risk of HIV infection for those with a larger foreskin than those with a smaller one. This is exactly what a new …

“Women now account for half of the 33 million people living with HIV around the world. In sub-Saharan Africa, home to two-thirds of the world’s people living with HIV, women are even harder hit, making up 60 percent of those infected. Not only are women biologically more susceptible than men to HIV, many behavioral and social factors play into women’s vulnerability.
If a young woman is uninfected with HIV at the time of her marriage, traditional wisdom says that she has avoided the disease altogether. More and more, however, research shows …

Documentary film maker Tim Samuels investigates the globalization of pornography and its connection to health issues in developing countries.
“In Ghana you see the most extraordinary impact of the mainstream western pornography which is predominantly made in Los Angeles and is predominantly condom free. That pornography somehow makes its way to even the most remote and obscure parts of Ghana in Africa.
There are villages which don’t even have electricity; where people live in mud huts; where generators get wheeled into the village and mud huts get turned into impromptu pornographic cinemas. …

Another must see talk from the TED conference. The message to take home is that no simplification can be made neither is it valuable to try to make one.
“We hope that when we act on global problems in the future, we will not only have the heart, we will not only have the money, but we will also use the brain”
Hans Rosling
Professor of global health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute

The interactive animation in this video is accessible on the Gapminder website.

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33 million people are infected with HIV worldwide. But what does that tell us? The world is big. 67% of those infected lives in Sub-Saharan Africa. Still, Africa is a very large continent. 35% of all those infected live in southern Africa and within South Africa, the KwaZulu Natal province has the highest prevalence of HIV infection; 39% of women who attend an antenatal clinic are HIV positive.
Knowing the HIV epidemic is fundamental when setting up interventions and my opening statement clearly shows that generalisation are not very useful or …