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RISUG is indeed a great contraceptive, but when talking about its benefits for HIV we should be incredibly careful.

RISUG isn't a cure-all. Transmission is still possible through microtears and directly through the skin of the glans penis and the meatus. And RISUG does nothing to prevent female->male transmission.

It's far too easy for "RISUG inactivates HIV in some components of semen" to transmute into "It's ok baby, I got a shot that protects me from HIV!"



Agreed, but spread knowledge of this in Africa where HIV is a big problem, and isn't well understood or cared about (to western standards) and not only could it be a cheap and affordable birth control, but if it reduces the risk in transmission of HIV then its still coming up double.


That policy is a bit risky. That might diminish the use of other things that reduce significantly the spread of HIV, like condoms. It's still unknown how effective the gel is: maybe 90%, maybe 5%, condoms are 90% effective AFAIK[1].

[1] http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/416


I doubt that a contraceptive with 5% effectiveness would make it this far in trials. Even "pulling out" is more effective than 5%.


Also, contraceptive success is usually annualized, like with correct condom use, pregnancy happens less than 3 percent per year. I assume there is a standardized level of sexual activity for that, too.


I think he was talking about HIV.


female to male transmission rates are really low in general.


All sexual transmission rates are pretty "low," if Wikipedia's sources are accurate. Even anal intercourse is under 2%.


Per incidence; that's a 1 out of 50 chance every single time.


Meaning, you reach 50% after 35 times.


That was a fun weekend!


Depends on when your partner was infected. If it was recently then the transmission rate is very high.


It can't be that low...

How do men (heterosexuals) get infected then?


2% per event = 50% after 35 events.

Assuming 1% of partners have AIDS and someone had 10 partners and 35 events per partner.

.01 * (1 - .98)^ 35 = 0.5% per partner. And 1- (1 - .005) ^ 10 = ~5% chance of an infection in a lifetime.

Or working the other way if the average person with aids has 35 'events' per partner and 2.1 partners after infection the infection rate will increase.

PS: Real models include differing M/F infection rates, stratification by age and other vectors like transfusions and IV drug use.


IV drug use is a major vector still.

Also, HIV transmission is more likely with other STDs. If you have open syphlitic sores on your penis, you are more likely to contract HIV.


Not forgetting that HIV increases the risk of getting those other STIs too.

There's been some speculation about why rates of HIV vary so widely across Africa.

(http://www.irinnews.org/Report/91305/AFRICA-Risky-sex-does-n...)

Unsafe injection is the most efficient way to transmit the virus. It's scary that so many injections in the developing world are unsafe. (UNICEF say "16 billion injections are administered each year, of which 90 percent are for curative purposes; 50 percent of the total number of injections are unsafe.")

(http://www.irinnews.org/Report/85278/AFRICA-Poor-syringe-hyg...)

The amount of money needed to make a difference is probably (relatively) small. But changing behaviour is hard.

(http://www.path.org/our-work/safe-injection.php)


The contamination of heterosexuals man is hard. It happens, but is very hard. This information is not well spread because it can stimulate men to stop using condoms and increase the risk for women.


Without going into detail, there are sexual practices common in Africa that significantly increase the odds of transmission from woman to man.





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