Phillial: What Elton and Patti Didn't Tell You About AIDS in Africa

Allow me, your friendly neighborhood Phillyist columnist, to inform you about what the flower-clad Elton and Patti did not. The latest developments in AIDS-fighting research have the potential to empower women, shift the gender balance, and revolutionize sex on the dark continent (and everywhere else, for that matter).

This new technique in prevention is a mouthful – microbicides. Are you still with me? Mi-cro-bi-cides. (Perhaps I shouldn't be so upset that it wasn't discussed at Live 8 or the Freedom concert - it's not exactly a catchy crowd shout-out. Rufus Wainwright would have lisped over it; Will Smith fans would have stared in oblivion).

Microbicides are a clear, inexpensive (cheaper than condoms!), and scent-less gel that a woman would place in her vagina before having sex. According to the Global Campaign for Microbicides and some kind folks that run the University of Pennyslvania clinical trial, gels with names like BufferGel and PRO2000 could have an efficacy rate of 60% in preventing HIV transmission. Obviously, with such a failure rate, the condom and female condom would still be the STD-prevention method du jour. Yet the most likely candidate for HIV infection is now a married female in sub-Saharan Africa. In many African countries, where sex-and-gender politics are medieval at best, many of these women can't dream of asking for a condom from their married partners, who expect their promiscuity to be excused or ignored. Microbicides, which are as discreet as they are cheap, could be obtained easily and used without notice. If even a small portion of these women used a microbicide in half of their sexual encounters, over 2.5 million HIV infections could be prevented over 3 years. Single sex workers whose clients employ dubious condom use could breathe easier. Married women without the social or economic power to insist on monogamy, much less rubber, could prevent their children from becoming orphans. Sexually active teens, who sport "less physiologically mature" cervixes (and hence, a greater susceptibility to HIV) could protect themselves from a lifetime of stigma. The possibilities are endless.

It is obvious that this technology could cause a pendulum-swing in terms of human, sexual, and reproductive rights for African women and women everywhere. If Live 8 left you inspired, yet clueless as how to help, take heart - said developments aren’t being researched in some far-away Hah-vuhd lab. One of the main studies, as a matter of fact, is underway at the University of Pennsylvania. If you're an 18+ woman that's sexually active and HIV negative, you could join the study (their numbers are 215-746-7364 / 1-800-324-1895). You won't be giving a dime, but you will be giving to science.

Microbicides won't be on the market in 2010. But you can help join the fight to make their distribution a reality in this sexually conservative climate. The Pennsylvania Campaign for Microbicides, a branch of the Global Campaign for Microbicides, is supporting the research at Penn, spreading community awareness, and speaking with politicians to get backing for its future distribution. If so interested, you can contact them, and join the fight.

Philadelphia, YOU can help make a difference. Elton John -- and I -- will thank you.