Bistandsorganisationer uddeler masser af kondomer, men en vigtig aktør som FNs Befolkningsfond (UFPA) spenderer stort set ingen penge på uddeling af noget ligeså betydningsfuldt – glidecreme; ikke vores skyld siger fonden.
KATHMANDU, 21 February 2013 (PlusNews): Safer-sex messaging on condoms is universal but the generally poor availability of lubricants (glidecreme), and awareness of them, is hindering HIV prevention, health activists warn.
Some personal lubricant – or “lube”- has been shown to lower the risk of HIV transmission by decreasing the risk of condoms breaking.
Despite preliminary proof of lube’s efficacy (effektivitet), far less of the product is procured and distributed than condoms.
This lead people to use alternative, sometimes harmful, substances during intercourse (samleje) such as butter or petroleum jelly (geléagtig masse); oil-based lubricants weaken latex (gummisaften i gummiet), making the condom more likely to break.
Activists say, however, that a blind spot in research on lubricants as a part of HIV prevention programmes means not enough is known about their impact on HIV risk.
Availability
A 2012 survey by The Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF), a US-based coalition focused on men who have sex with men (MSM), found that barely a quarter of the 5.000 people from 165 countries surveyed reported easy access to free lubricant.
A full 25 percent said free lubricant was completely unavailable. Less than 10 percent of people living in low-income countries reported easy access.
While condoms have been part of family planning and HIV prevention work for decades, safe personal lubricant has only recently emerged as a donor priority.
For example, the US government began distributing condoms in the 1970s through its aid and diplomatic missions, but its aid arm, the US Agency for International Development (Amerikas Danida), only began distributing lubricant in 2008.
“Where health systems are less developed, it is critical to help establish and maintain supply chains and distribution systems, as well as support efforts to build and accurately forecast demand for lube,” explained a representative from the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR):
Acknowledging the importance of using personal lubricants with condoms, especially during anal sex, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) decided in 2012 to include water-based lubricants in the procurement list (indkøbslisten) of commodities available to governmental and non-governmental clients in low and middle-income countries.
Largely misunderstood
However, outside of community-care settings, the real demand for lubricant remains largely misunderstood.
Research in Burundi found that health care providers sometimes do not provide lube to patients because they consider it to be “promoting homosexual behaviour”, highly-stigmatized (fordømt) there.
With lube requests stymied in formal health care settings, NGOs can become the sole method of access.
“Key populations – such as MSM and sex workers – who need the lubricant the most, often get their health-related services from local NGOs, which are not often included in [HIV/AIDS] policies or broader [health] programmes,” explained Bidia Deperthes, a senior HIV adviser with UNFPA’s Comprehensive Condom Programming division in New York.
With these NGOs frequently absent from meetings with donors, lube demand can appear falsely low.
UNFPA, a global leader in the purchase and distribution of contraceptives (svangerskabsforebyggende midler), spent more than 18 percent of its 2011 budget on male condoms, but less than 0,5 percent on personal lubricants, citing donors’ and decision-makers’ lack of understanding of the true demand for the latter as one reason.
Alternatives
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http://www.plusnews.org/Report/97517/Lack-of-lube-hurts-HIV-prevention
