Chairperson Margaret Leggatt introduces the guest speaker
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RECENT GUEST
SPEAKER, March 15, Professor Roger Short,
gave a truly engaging speech on the spread of AIDS and
possible actions which could help combat the problem. It
was curiously appropriate to be addressing the topic of
HIV/AIDS on the opening day of the Commonwealth Games. In
her address to Parliament, Her Majesty the Queen had reminded
us that more than half the 40 million people currently infected
with HIV resided in the Commonwealth.
And last week AusAID had announced at a meeting in Port
Moresby that 500.000 Papua New Guineans could be infected
by 2025, decimating the nation.
How can we help stop this disaster from overwhelming us?
There are a number of beguilingly simple approaches that
might enable those living on under a dollar a day to prevent
infection. There is now irrefutable evidence to show that
male circumcision can provide a man with a seven-fold protection
against infection, because it is the inner aspect of the
foreskin that is the predilection site for HIV entry into
the penis. Countries with high rates of circumcision, such
as Egypt, or Pakistan, or Bangladesh, or Indonesia, where
traditional Islamic circumcision is universally practiced,
have much lower rates of HIV infection than their uncircumcised
neighbours.
Papua New Guinea has a very low rate of circumcision,
whereas in neighbouring Vanuatu, adolescent circumcision
is almost universal, and HIV infection almost unknown. Roger
mentioned enlisting the help of Rotary to film adolescent
circumcision ceremonies in Vanuatu, and circulate the film
throughout Papua New Guinea.
Other simple preventative measures that are currently being
evaluated include using taking the oral contraceptive pill
intra-vaginally instead of by mouth, thereby thickening
the vaginal lining and making it more difficult for the
virus to gain entry. And an age-old contraceptive method
once widely used in the Mediterranean region, inserting
lime or lemon juice in the vagina before sex, might also
kill HIV before the woman became infected. The recent discovery
that over 80% of female commercial sex workers in Jos, Nigeria
routinely douche with lime or lemon juice as a contraceptive
gives us an opportunity to see if it is also protecting
these girls from HIV infection.
Full details about all these methods can be found at www.aids.net.au.
It will also contain regular updates on the Melbourne Rotary
Vanuatu Project; filming is expected to start in July 2006.
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