Microbicides as an HIV Prevention Tool: A Review of the Literature\ud

Biomedical HIV prevention research findings are becoming increasingly prevalent in the literature, but in order to get an accurate picture of prevention possibility, adherence and environment must be carefully considered. This essay reviews the available literature, examining reported microbicide trials and participant adherence. Many microbicide trials fail to show efficacy, but participants’ adherence is not examined in detail. Even though there have been successes in trials testing microbicides as HIV prevention, the general trend is to dismiss them and explore other opportunities for prevention. Because behavioral interventions have not been entirely effective, microbicide research is significant to public health because it adds a biomedical dimension to the existing prevention effort. This essay aims to show that further studies of both microbicidal efficacy and means to increase participant adherence are needed to move the field of HIV prevention forward