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[edit] question

I have a couple questions... How is Microbicide put into the body? injection? How does it work? Is it just for sexual diseases like HIV?

Microbicides work in different ways, depending on the product. Some directly kill bacteria, others nuetralize the diseases by tearing off their coatings, and others simply make the vagina inhospitable to any disease. The way they could be applied could be the same ways spermicides currently are ie. suppositories, creams, gels, films, foams, and through various applicator type schemes. They also could be used to replace traditional spermicides in diaphargms and cervical caps. SiberioS 02:59, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Men will benefit too

Two sentences in the first paragraph discussing the benefit of microbicides for sexually disempowered women seems sufficient. Too much additional focus on the various ways that men sexually oppress women might be redundant and might distract readers from the important concept that effective topical microbicides would be of great benefit to men as well. Cheating husbands don't deserve to be infected with HIV, herpes or genital warts any more than their wives do. Also note that HIV is roughly 50:50 men:women worldwide [1], so text implying that women are at greater overall "risk" is misleading. Also glaringly absent is the concept that gay men would benefit from effective topical microbicides. It seems imbalanced to have six sentences about the benefits for disempowered women and zero sentences about benefits for men.

On a related note, I'm trying to think of a way to include a mention of the dreadful "dry sex" issue in sub-Saharan Africa (see [2]. It could pose an enormous barrier to implementation of topical microbicide programs. Might require breaking the article into sections. Retroid 15:04, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, please, by all means. (I was previously unaware of the "dry sex" phenomenon.) But why not link to the existing article? Iskunk 00:22, 18 August 2006 (UTC)