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Microbicides (October 2004)
Adopted by the Canadian AIDS Society’s Board of Directors, October, 2004.
The Canadian AIDS Society (CAS) wants to raise awareness of the need for additional tools to address the continued risk that HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) pose to the health of women, gay men, youth, injection drug users, people living with HIV/AIDS, Aboriginal communities, ethnocultural communities and prisoners in Canada and around the world. Indeed, all of our communities could benefit from additional tools to protect ourselves, including microbicides.
A “microbicide” is any substance that can substantially reduce transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) when applied either in the vagina or rectum.
Microbicides would provide an additional, complementary tool for individuals and communities to protect themselves against HIV infections and other STIs. For women, it would represent the first female-controlled method of protection against HIV and STIs. With the option of contraceptive and non-contraceptive microbicides, women could choose to become pregnant without risking HIV or other STI infections. For people living with HIV/AIDS, microbicides could help prevent infections from STIs, prevent re-infection with strains of HIV and provide protection in sero-discordant couples.
Given that microbicides development is a long-term effort, and given that they will only be partially effective:
Current prevention efforts must be re-invigorated, and access to current and prevention tools must be improved
Microbicides need to be placed within the continuum of prevention-care-support-treatment, and understood as part of a comprehensive approach to the fight against HIV/AIDS, not as a “magic bullet”. Thus, microbicides could form part of a range of tools and approaches to preventing HIV infections, including male and female condoms, needle exchanges and eventually vaccines.
CAS calls on the following stakeholders to become involved in microbicides development and access:
CAS calls on the Canadian Government to develop and implement a Canadian Microbicides Plan which would outline Canada’s contributions to microbicide development, delivery and equitable access both domestically and internationally.
Both the development and implementation should include the active involvement of stakeholders from multiple sectors, including community-based AIDS organizations and other organizations working with communities affected by and at risk of HIV/AIDS and other STIs, people living with HIV/AIDS, researchers, the private sector, and government.
The Canadian Microbicides Plan should be linked to the Canadian HIV Vaccines Plan currently under development (please refer to the CAS position statement on HIV Vaccines).
CAS calls on community-based AIDS organizations, and organizations working with communities affected by and at risk of HIV and other STI infection to raise awareness of microbicides and to advocate for the accelerated development, delivery and access to microbicides. CAS calls specifically on the following communities to become actively involved in this work: people living with HIV/AIDS, women, gay men, youth, Aboriginal communities, ethnocultural communities, injection drug users and prisoners.
This work includes planning for the introduction of new prevention technologies, and the shifts that will occur in HIV prevention programming and policy.
CAS calls on researchers in Canada to contribute actively to the accelerated research and development of effective microbicides, and to the development of basic, clinical, socio-behavioural and community-based research into microbicides. Research should be conducted into the effectiveness and safety of microbicides use for the rectum of both women and men, the vagina and the penis.
This includes social and policy research to anticipate the impact of new prevention technologies on HIV prevention programming and policy.
CAS calls on the private sector to support and to participate actively in the research and development of microbicides, and to support community advocacy efforts for microbicides development and access
CAS calls on the philanthropic sector to support the development of microbicides and to support community advocacy and awareness-raising efforts
CAS calls on the media to raise awareness of microbicides
