The World Health Organization (2017) describes and defines the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as a medical condition that compromises and weakens the cells of the immune system thereby impairing their function. The virus results in progressive deterioration of the immune system leading to a deficiency in the immune system. The immune system is considered deficient when it fails to fulfill its role of warding off infections, diseases, and other medical conditions. Global statistics showing the prevalence of the disease by the WHO and UNAIDS estimated that 36.7 million individuals were living with the virus by the end of 2016 (WHO, 2017). In the same year according to the data, an additional 1.8 million individuals became infected with the virus while one million died of the HIV-related causes, mostly the opportunistic infections. Since education and awareness are key towards combating the pandemic, the discourse of the paper will narrow its focus on the prevention of the deadly virus that has so far claimed millions of lives with no known or proclaimed cure. The aim is to provide well thought-out preventive strategies and techniques against the spread of the disease.
Preventive Strategies and Interventions
According to SMAIF (2017), HIV infects approximately 37, 600 individuals each year based on the annual diagnoses. In essence, HIV does not affect all individuals the same way, does not care for gender, ethnicity, or religion, and is only spread through certain body fluids exchanged with an infected individual. These fluids include semen, blood, rectal fluids, breast milk, pre-seminal fluids, and vaginal fluids. That said, HIV can only be spread through unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected individual, contaminated blood transfusion, sharing needles, syringes, surgical instruments and other sharp equipment with an infected individual, as well as oral sex (WHO, 2017). The recent decade has seen better prevention techniques and options than ever before, which are essential in the reduction of the risk to acquire or transmit HIV. According to research, the new methods are substantially effective than preexisting ones (SMAIF, 2017). The following are the known and proven prevention strategies.
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Knowing One’s Status
Getting tested and knowing oneself, as well as one’s partner’s HIV status, has for a long time been an effective strategy. However, the efficacy of this strategy is only a hundred percent if it is employed before indulging in any risky sexual activity with the partner. Fundamentally, this strategy has been made possible by various governments and health institutions by increasing the number of testing centers globally.
Education and Awareness
Being aware and learning about the disease, its means of spreading, and the importance of frequent testing has been essential in debunking proliferated myths within communities and thereby acting as a preventive measure. Importantly, this has been achieved over the years through school education and in recent decades through mass and social media campaigns due to the advancement of technology.
Behavioral Change
Several preemptive strategies can be employed in curbing the spread of the virus. The National Research Council (1996) reiterates that getting individuals to change or transform their behavior is not impossible. The council further suggests that behavioral change and interventions should target specific target audiences such as the youth who are more sexually active than any other group. Besides, supportive social environments that reinforce individual behavioral change and prevention interventions should be set up. However, under behavioral change, other stand-alone preventive strategies could be employed.
Avoiding risky sexual behavior - this mainly speaks of the tendency to engage either in vaginal or anal sex without protection or taking medication to curb the spread of HIV.
Use of contraceptives - contraceptives refer to either female or male condoms. As a preventive strategy, it not only relates to the use of the contraceptives but rather proper use of the same. The approach is further coupled with awareness campaigns regarding the correct use of the condoms.
Reducing the number of sexual partners - according to NIH (2018), the more the sexual partners an individual has, the higher the risk of having one with poorly controlled HIV or one with STDs, which increase the risk of contracting the virus.
Avoid sharing needles, and drug injections - the opioid crisis in the US has reached pandemic levels, almost at the same level as HIV even worse, and the fastest means of getting the drugs into the body of the users is through injections. The risk here comes in sharing the syringes which increase the risk of exposure. Thus, if one must inject the drugs, using sterile injection equipment, avoiding sharing the needles, and proper disposal of the same aids in curbing the spread of the disease.
Male circumcision - according to WHO (2017), male circumcision curbs the female-to-male risk of transmission by approximately 60%. Circumcision further offers life-long partial protection against not only HIV but also STDs.
Treatment as Prevention
HIV treatment through the prescription of ARTs has in the recent decade stood out as an effective though not foolproof preventive technique. According to the CDC (2018), providing infected heterosexual HIV males and females with ARTs reduces the risk of transmission to a negative partner by 96%. However, effectiveness remains high in individuals that achieve and maintain viral suppression as opposed to those that do not. Similarly, under this category, several other strategies are worth considering.
Prevention of mother-to-child transmission - indeed, infected mothers who are under ART or ARV medications are less likely to infect their babies during pregnancy or birth as opposed to those that are not under medication.
Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis - PrEP is a strategy used by high-risk individuals to lower their chances of contracting the virus before sex or sharing a needle with an infected person. PrEP is a treatment (Truvada) taken daily, and it offers a 90% chance of prevention of the virus from sexual intercourse and a 70% chance of prevention from the injection (CDC, 2017). Further strategies as those discussed above can be combined with PrEP to fortify the prevention.
Post-Exposure Prophylaxis- PEP is a prevention technique employed by individuals who are at risk of HIV infection after sexual intercourse with an infected person. The strategy reduces the risk of contraction and is used soon after the individual has had unprotected sex with an infected individual or another form of exposure. The medication has to be taken within 72 hours after exposure and should be taken for the next 28 days. The medication used here is ART and is more effective when administered promptly after exposure.
Conclusion
While it is a fact that HIV has no known cure, it is equally a fact that preventive measures have proven efficacious over time. In addition to the preexisting preventive strategies such as awareness, use of contraceptives, and reducing sexual partners, more futuristic approaches have emerged. These include the PrEp and PEP strategies thanks to advancement in medical research, especially regarding virology. Joining this group is social and mass media campaigns propagated by the advancement in technology. Nevertheless, despite the proliferation of preventive strategies, one central facet that determines the success of all other strategies remains education and awareness. Having all the above strategies and employing them is counter-effective if the public is not educated and made aware regarding how the strategies work or how they can be applied in different situations. Ultimately, prevention and intervention begin with an individual checking and curbing risky behaviors.
References
CDC. (2017). The effectiveness of prevention strategies to reduce the risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/risk/estimates/preventionstrategies.html
National Research Council. (1996). Preventing and Mitigating AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa: research and data priorities for the social and behavioral sciences: 5 primary HIV-prevention strategies. The National Academies Press . Doi: 10.17226/5177.
NIH. (2018). The basics of HIV prevention. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Retrieved from https://aidsinfo.nih.gov/understanding-hiv-aids/fact-sheets/20/48/the-basics-of-hiv-prevention
SMAIF. (2017). HIV prevention activities. HIV gov. Retrieved from https://www.hiv.gov/federal-response/federal-activities-agencies/hiv-prevention-activities
World Health Organization. (2017). HIV/AIDS. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/features/qa/71/en/
