Preventing HIV

  • Introduction

    HIV has become a pandemic because it has a lethal combination of properties: transmission via that most taboo, intractable and instinctive of human activities, sex, a long

  • A is for abstinence

    On a population level, delaying the onset of sexual activity, or at least full intercourse, could be an effective HIV prevention measure amongst some groups.

  • B is for being faithful

    B, which stands in the original ‘ABC’ model for ‘Be faithful’, but also involves partner reduction as well as strict monogamy, has been called “The

  • C is for condoms

    Consistently-used condoms provide significant protection against HIV, pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), significantly better than any other prevention method.

  • Female condoms

    The most effective method to prevent HIV acquisition and transmission, the condom, is worn by men. Many women do not have relationships of equality with

  • Circumcision

    There is strong biological and epidemiological evidence that circumcised men are less vulnerable to HIV infection via heterosexual intercourse than uncircumcised men.

  • Disclosure, serosorting and sexual harm reduction

    The Abstain-Be faithful-Condoms ‘ABC’ approach to HIV prevention does not work for a lot of people. Sexual abstention is a personal choice that may not

  • The role of HIV testing in HIV prevention

    It might seem strange to propose HIV testing as a prevention method. After all, it could be argued that the role of HIV testing is

  • Post-exposure prophylaxis

    Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) has been in use, in healthcare settings, since 1988. Providing PEP after sexual exposure is more controversial.

  • Pre-exposure prophylaxis: the challenge

    Pre-exposure prophylaxis is an experimental HIV-prevention strategy that would use antiretrovirals (ARVs) to protect HIV-negative people from HIV infection.

  • Treating people with HIV in order to reduce HIV transmission

    With pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), antiretroviral drugs are given to an entire population at risk of HIV.  Could an alternative be simply to give the drugs

  • Treating sexually transmitted infections to prevent HIV

    One strand of investigation in the biomedical prevention of HIV is to see whether we can reduce HIV incidence by treating other sexually transmitted infections

  • Microbicides

    Microbicides are any substances which protect people against infection by microbes, such as viruses or bacteria, on contact with those microbes.

  • The search for an HIV vaccine

    The day the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus was announced in 1984, the then US Health Secretary Margaret Heckler forecast that a vaccine against

  • Behaviour change: which methods work?

    A practical introduction to the evidence regarding the effectiveness of non-biomedical HIV prevention methods.