Mexico City - The female condom is currently the only woman-
controlled preventive method against HIV infection. Yet, it is a
poorly funded invention and has been ignored by policy makers, making
far too expensive and largely unavailable.
'This is a 15-year scandal born of ignorance and inertia. It has
been made doubly worse as the HIV epidemic is now affecting women at
a higher rate than men, especially in sub-Saharan Africa,' said Farah
Karimi, spokesperson of Oxfam, Britain's leading aid charity.
'We now know that millions of women might have been spared HIV,
unwanted pregnancies, and empowered themselves in the process, if
they had access to this simple method.'
A new report by Oxfam and the World Population Foundation,
'Failing Women, Witholding Protection,' launched at the XVII
International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, said that countries
have wasted countless lives by willfully ignoring the best available
invention to help protect women from HIV and other sexually
transmitted diseases.
'Every day 7,000 young women become HIV positive. We need to do
more to support them to protect their health,' said Purnima Mane,
deputy executive director of the United Nations Population Fund.
Women account for nearly half of HIV infections worldwide. In sub-
Saharan Africa, 75 per cent of those infected are women.
The female condom looks large and unwieldy, but women seem to like
it. About 16 centimetres long, it is a polyurethane sheath that
covers the vagina, cervix and external genitalia and can be inserted
just before intercourse. The only version approved by the US Food and
Drug Administration is manufactured by the Female Health Company in
London.
Researchers say one of the main problems in making the product
widely available to women is its hefty pricetag.
Beyond availability, much training and practice are required
before women figure out how to use it. Those who do, say that its
advantage over male condoms is that it does not interrupt intercourse
and can be inserted well in advance.
In the last 10 years, only 6 million dollars has been spent on
developing a new condom for women. In contrast, in 2006 alone,
international donors spent more than 1 billion dollars trying to
develop new HIV-prevention technologies, Oxfam said.
With little investment and innovation, the price of female condoms
has remained unaffordable as compared to male condoms - often 18
times more.
Oxfam said that an investment of 20 million dollars would allow
new female condoms to be brought into world markets, increase
competition and decrease prices.
In India, the female condom was introduced in 2007 by the National
AIDS Control Organization (NACO) and rapidly gained acceptability. In
one year, the pilot programme tripled its demand for the condoms -
from 500,000 to 1.5 million - while halving the price from 45 rupees
(1 dollar) to 23 rupees.
NACO currently socially markets the female condom at 5 rupees (10
cents). India now has 'Female Condom Champions,' who are trained by
non-governmental organizations to sell the idea of female-controlled
protection and show women how to use it.
Many Indian women say the female condom has been a boon.
In AIDS-hit Guntur district in the southern state of Andhra
Pradesh, women claim they can use the female condoms with husbands
reluctant to put on the male version, as the former doesn't impact
sexual pleasure for either partner.
For all its benefits, governments have been sluggish about
supporting female condoms, with the exception of Zimbabwe, where it
was introduced in 1997, said Serra Sippel, executive director of US
non-profit Centre for Health and Gender Equity.
'In most countries, the female condom is introduced as a pilot for
one or two years and withdrawn when funding comes to an end.
Investment is critical, as is the 'buy-in' of the national
government. They must want to give the product to women,' Sippel
said.
In the United States, some government-run centres in New York
offer education on and access to the female condom. 'But in
Washington you have to go to a sex shop to buy one. In many cases,
pharmacists are not even aware of it,' Sippel said.
Lynde Francis of the International Community of Women living with
HIV/AIDS, who has been HIV-positive since 1986, said: 'In Zimbabwe,
were I work, sexual violence is extremely high. A minister told me
the product was not good, 'As women in sex work could infect men if
they did not change the female condom for different sexual
encounters.''
'When I asked him the difference between 10 men sharing a vagina
and 10 men sharing a vagina with a female condom, he said there was
none. I said him the difference is that the woman is protected.'
Researchers say there are further, unquantifiable benefits of
female condoms as a powerful tool to help women assert their sexual
rights.
In Kenya, users say it has enabled the building of better
communication between partners about safe sex. In India, women say it
helped reduce domestic violence brought on by requests to husbands to
use condoms. Women in sex work the world over claim they can now
negotiate their own safety.
USA
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