The Kaiser Network reports: Ugandan officials, meeting to discuss ways to better market the female condom, expressed concern that commercial sex workers in that country are reusing the prophylactic. According to this piece, there are side effects to using female condoms for more than 8 hours (I wouldn’t doubt it, I just don’t know what they are).
Molly Basimaki of the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS says not having enough time between johns, and the relative expense and availability of this method (as compared with male condoms) in Uganda, account for sex workers’ reuse of the prophylactic.
Though the above information was first relayed by Uganda’s New Vision and then by Kaiser, I found this information today on the DC Fights Back site (with a link to the story on Medical News TODAY). In anticipation of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day this Saturday, I was looking for volunteer opportunities when this headline caught my eye.
Yes; news from Uganda’s fight against HIV/AIDS is completely topical for a US HIV/AIDS Awareness Day: In 2008, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci compared the AIDS rate in my city – DC – to that of Uganda or South Africa. DC is the front lines of the national fight against HIV/AIDS, with the highest AIDS rate of any other American city.
I’d love to read what this (very smart and cool) woman says about what Americans can learn from Uganda’s HIV/AIDS battle, especially as concerns this news about their sex workers.
I’ll post ways to get involved in National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day as I find them. In the mean time, if you see or know of anything… let me know!
