13-10 Vanessa Dang HIV Prevention

Malcolm Potts’ article presented shortcomings of some current HIV prevention methods; his criticism of these methods surprised me, because he identifies three methods as inadequate that are related to the ABC’s – which are the only three guaranteed ways to prevent HIV transmission. He discredits condom advocacy/education, HIV testing (which is crucial to practicing faithfulness), and abstinence. He presents statistics that show that these three prevention methods, in addition to the others he identifies, do not make vast contributions to decreased transmission rates. However, I still believe that these methods are worthwhile investments – especially those that involve behavior change. I agree that in light of his evidence for effective HIV prevention methods we should re-evaluate the distribution of funding; perhaps focusing on providing circumcisions for men. Potts does acknowledge that implementation of safe sexual behaviors is a necessary component of circumcision, which also makes me wonder if there is any evidence that circumcision has resulted in an increase of risky sexual behaviors, resulting from the fact that it alone greatly reduces the chance of HIV transmission in males. The other three articles regarding STI treatment and HIV transmission were also interesting, especially because of the different results. However, I agree with the article comparing the two studies that STI treatment is vitally important to general public health and that it most likely does coincide with reduced HIV transmission. In all, our readings from this week show that we still have much to do in maximizing the effectiveness of HIV prevention. At this point, I think that all of the methods that Potts identified should continue, even if they are not as effective as others. In general, behavior change is important for all around good health and safety, STI treatment is a necessary component for public health as well, and finally, I believe that research in various areas of HIV treatment could yield good results in the future. I suppose what I am trying to express is that the complexity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic requires the use of as many prevention methods as possible in order to target the widespread contributing factors that propagate spread of HIV/AIDS.