Disclaimer

The contents of this blog do not represent the views of the Peace Corps or the United States government.

Wednesday, 30 December 2015

World AIDS Day

In case you missed it, December 1st was World AIDS Day. Every year Botswana has both a national World AIDS Day on December 1st and then regional commemorations on December 10th.
This year I went to our region's World AIDS Day in a tiny village in the middle of the Tuli Block with three other Peace Corps volunteers. The Tuli Block is a wonderful game reserve full of elephants, giraffes, and countless other animals. I'm sure you can imagine how excited we were that our regional World AIDS Day was going to be there.
The village was beautiful and we couldn't resist going for a hike after we had set up our tents next to the clinic. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any elephants, but there were monkeys and baboons and some antelope running around. The view of the sunset was breathtaking.



A baboon skull along the path

The next morning we got up early to attend the commemoration events. There were many speeches, a candlelight vigil, drama group skits, a lovely choir, and a poet. One day I will have strong enough internet to share some videos of Batswana singing and dancing, but until then this unsatisfying little photo will have to do:
The Poet

We set up  some posters explaining what Peace Corps does and shared information about HIV/AIDS in Botswana while passing out red ribbons. 


After the ceremony, the attendees stopped by our booth and we quizzed them on their knowledge of HIV.


In honour of World AIDS Day, here's information about a potential, new "super condom" that could have a major impact in the fight against HIV: 

"According to scientists from the Texas A&M University Health Science Center, the new contraceptive will be lined with a hydrogel-based product (hydrogel being a water-based gel, generally used in healing cuts), which kills the HIV-virus in the event of a condom breakage.The condom will also feature an antioxidant to enhance sexual pleasure. "People say they don’t want to use condoms because it doesn’t have the same sexual pleasure," Mahua Choudhery, head researcher on the project, told the BBC.
"The anti-oxidant [in the condom] will enhance neurotransmitters which will work with nerve endings, giving greater sexual pleasure.
"If the HIV virus gets into the product, the condom will block it, prevent it replicating, and prevent entry [from the body]."

If this condom is effective and becomes widely available (and cheap) in the coming years, it could completely change public health initiatives and the struggle against HIV. The most common reason people opt out of using condoms is because they don't like the way it feels. If this condom actually increases sexual pleasure, people would be interested in using them for more than protecting their health or preventing pregnancy. Behaviour change is probably one of the hardest aspects of public health, so if you could change a product instead trying to change the way people feel about a product, HIV prevention would have a huge victory.

If you're interested in learning more about HIV/AIDS, I strongly recommend the book The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS by Elizabeth Pisani. Unfortunately the book doesn't delve too much into the HIV situation in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it's still a fascinating and engaging read. Pisani writes with brutal and oftentimes hilarious honesty.

And finally, here is  video the Peace Corps made of an interview with former President Festus Mogae of Botswana. I had the opportunity to hear President Mogae speak at our All-Volunteer conference this year and he was incredibly inspiring. 


PCVs with the former president



Here's the link to the article I referenced in this post: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/new-supercondom-will-fight-hiv-and-increase-sexual-pleasure-scientists-claim-a6778746.html 


No comments:

Post a Comment