Cheap, Better And Safe Way HIV/AIDS Can Be Prevented

HIV/AIDS prevention

Human Immune Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is the most dreaded disease in Nigeria. That is the main reasons people are seeking for preventive measures at all cost. That is because prevention is better than cure.
HIV It is transmitted through body fluid. This include blood, semen, vaginal fluid, etc. Of all the methods of transmission, sexual behavior has the highest number rate. The most common guidelines that the world health organization (WHO) is advocating for which is abstinence, faithful and condom are not yielding fruit. These three have not really help in terms of prevention. The reason is simple. Humans are not monogamous by nature and the complain of slight pain experience with condom is limiting it's use.
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If there is effective cure, people will spend less time thinking about prevention. Unfortunately, with billions of dollars gone down the drain, there is yet to be a cure. Now, attention is shifting from seeking for a cure to available, acceptable, cheap, safe and effective means of prevention. It is believe that with few dollars to spend, a viable preventive measures that suit the above criteria would soon be developed.
Currently, there are different approach under study. Majority of them have shown promising result. But most of them fell short of one or two criteria. Let's take a look at some.

• Treatment: an infected person can prevent a partner from getting infected. This is possible when the viral load is low. This is only possible with adherence to prescribe medication to manage HIV infection. However, the cost of treatment is high.
• Pre exposure prophylaxis: there are drugs that can prevent the infection if used regularly over a time period. Still, they are quiet expensive.
• Post exposure prophylaxis: there are drugs use in arresting the disease within 72 hours of exposure to the virus which is effective. However, the risk associated with this method is very high. How will one know the partner is positive within the stipulated time is highly not feasible. Besides, the drugs are also very expensive.
• Cervical barrier: some believe that infection of a female occur in the cervix. To reduce risk of infection, a barrier is place in the cervix to prevent HIV infected semen from getting to the cervix. This is believe to reduce the risk of infection. This is still under investigation with so many questions yet to be answered with research.
• Treatment of other diseases: a couple of research have shown that some bacteria and viral infection increase the risk of getting HIV infection. To reduce the risk, it is advisable to treat these conditions. A good example is herpes infection. Others are hepatitis of different categories. However, even healthy people get the infection.

We can see that the above methods have their own limitations. Condom was developed in the sixteen century in Italy, to curb syphilis. This method is outdated. We need modern better methods to replace it. Since all the above methods fell short of one requirement or the other let us take a closer look at some simple methods that showed promising prospect.

Prevention  Of HIV In Women

Let us first of all look at how women get infected through sex. The cells HIV gets attached to is the Langerhans cells and other dendritic cells. This is super abundant in the vagina epithelium. However, some also believe it is in the cervix or uterus.

Lemon And Lime

Faced with the numerous challenges of developing and designing a new drug that meet Federal Drug Agency (FDA) guidelines of three face clinical trials, attention is been drawn towards traditional compounds used over the years by women as a control of fertility. This will make the research easy with more information readily available. A good example is lemon and lime juice.
Lemon and lime have been used by women over the years as a means of contraception. A cotton wool soaked in the juice is inserted into the vagina before sex or after sex. This they do to kill the sperm.
Laboratory experiment have shown how effective this method is in preventing pregnancy. No further study yet about it's safety when use as a contraceptive method. The juice is acidic in nature. It's low pH has the ability to immobilize sperm cells. The degrees of immobilization depends on the concentration of the juice and the semen. Other experiments have demonstrated how the juice inactivate the virus.
A further experiment showed that when applied to the penis and vagina before sex, there was no pain experience. Another research showed that repeated application using animal models did not show trauma or problem. The reason could be due to the fact that the vagina is use to acidic content. The pH of the vagina is about 4.2 during ovulation period while that of lemon and lime is somewhat around 2.3 which is close to the normal. One of the main ingredient of the semen is critic acid. This makes it easy for the vagina to adapt to lime and lemon juice.
In a situation whereby an already infected person wants to prevent self from other strains of the infection, this may be a viable option too. But the possibility that it can worsen immune system is there. There was a problem like this with another agent. It was very safe in otherwise healthy individuals. However, things fell apart when it was use on sick persons. So therefore, it is very important for more studies to be carried out on this. And lastly, there is still no research if it is better before or after sex.

Topical Ostreogen

Ostreogen is develop by Graafin follicle in the ovary. It is high during ovulation and help to thicken the vagina walls. It is believe that this happen during ovulation as women are more likely to engage in sexual act this period than other periods. The thickening help prevent the trauma associated with sex and the loads of infection coming from the semen.
It has been associated with reduce risk of HIV with postmenopausal women as compared to pre-menopausal women. An animal study demonstrated that topical application of ostreogen cream on the vagina can reduce the risk of infection. Out of twelve animals use in the study, only one was infected. This was in sharp contrast with the control group where six out of eight got infected. The final report showed that the cream had no effect on reproductive health because the strength is low.
Read Also: What rape victims must do to avoid infection and get Justice

Prevention Of HIV In Male

It is believe that the infection occur on the skin of the penis. This is unlike what so many people use to think that the infection goes through the urethral. The inner aspect of the foreskin is richly supplied with Langerhans cells as well as dendritic cells. This is most likely the point of infection.

Male Circumcision

For uncircumcised folks, the inner foreskin epithelium is thin and poorly ketatinised. This makes it easy for the virus to pass through into the body system after any little trauma that may arise during sex. But for circumcised men, the gland penis has a highly ketatinised epithelium to protect it from trauma during intercourse. This the virus find it difficult to pass through easily. Minor friction can hardly damage the gland. The only issue arise when there is a major lesions that the virus can penetrate.
A couple of studies have shown that the risk of HIV infection reduce with circumcision with about 60 percent. Many health bodies are pushing for male circumcision in developing countries as a way of fighting the infection.

Hygiene

I have always advocated for this. I never knew there is proof to it. Wiping the inner aspect of the foreskin of the penis immediately after withdrawal from an infected person reduce the risk of most infection HIV inclusive. Using monkeys, it was observed that it takes more than an hour for the virus to enter the body through the penis. Enough time to clean up. Using a microbicide further reduce the risk. Gabriel Fallopio, a great anatomist in 1564 was the first that advocated for this. In his book, De morbo Gallico, he states that;

as often as a man has intercourse, he should (if possible), wash the genitals or wipe them with a cloth; afterward, he should use a small linen cloth made to fit the glans and draw forward the prepuce over the glans; if he can do so, it is as well to moisten it with saliva or a lotion.

According to him, his experiment prove it when he said that out of twelve men that tried it, not one of them got infected.
What can probably be the best microbicide to use on the penis? As we all know, there are thousands of microbicide that can destroy the virus within a minute. However, the best choice will be that which is safe, acceptable, cheap and easy to use. Looking at all the available tools we have today in our arsenal showed that they all have one disadvantage or the other. That leave us with no other choice than lime, vinegar and lemon. Some research are still ongoing on how this can help reduce male infection. A small quantity spray over the penis immediately after intercourse can be all that it takes to prevent infection.

Adapted from: new ways if preventing HIV infection: thinking simple, simply thinking; philos trans et al (2006 may 29); 361 (1439): 811-820.
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