http://www.wisdomofwhores.com Of sex and science. Elizabeth Pisani's blog about HIV and other sundry things. Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:07:59 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The test-and-treat debate has been getting a bit hot and heavy of late. I think we all deserve some light relief. I offer this: Thanks to Txema, who is always ready to make a girl smile. http://www.wisdomofwhores.com/2010/03/03/graffiti-protect-against-hiv/ Can we treat our way out of the HIV epidemic? Yesterday I wrote a piece in The Guardian suggesting that the "Test and Treat" approach was a triumph of optinism over common sense. Today, I am a homophobe, a media slut, a cherry-picker of data and over 120 other things, ... http://www.wisdomofwhores.com/2010/02/24/test-and-treat-wont-beat-hiv/ As promised, data on women, autonomy, partnerships and HIV. It's quite true that I have not developed some magic indicator of "autonomy". But the World Economic Forum has. Or at least its Gender Equality Index is as close as damnit. Let's take the sub-Saharan African countries at either extreme, and ... http://www.wisdomofwhores.com/2010/02/17/men-are-pigs-women-are-angels-not/ Yesterday, I sat at the TED conference in California and watched David Cameron pledge to make policies that support prostitutes. He didn't say it in those words, exactly, but he did promise firmly to make policy that "goes with the grain of human nature". That would be a massive change ... http://www.wisdomofwhores.com/2010/02/11/note-to-uk-sex-workers-vote-tory/ So Jacob Zuma is sorry about having unprotected sex with someone three decades younger than himself, who is not one of the five women he's married. That's a little better than last week's "You should be proud that I've admitted paternity and paid a fine. What are you all so ... http://www.wisdomofwhores.com/2010/02/09/countries-get-the-hiv-epidemics-they-deserve/ Remember the fabulous singing Nobel prize winner? Now PCR ads are getting sexy again. Though I do have to wonder how may pints the founders of TwistDx had had when they registered their company name. Try saying it out loud even before a pint... Thanks to Seif, who has yet to ... http://www.wisdomofwhores.com/2010/02/04/getting-your-dx-in-a-twist/ Who would have thought that showing your tits became a better strategy for pulling partners the older you get? Since I've never tried e-dating, it has never occured to me that it's a spectacular source of data for epi-nerds interested in sexual networking. My eyes have been opened by OKCupid, ... http://www.wisdomofwhores.com/2010/02/01/data-are-sexy-great-use-of-statistics/ The other night, I was dining with someone who didn't know their acronym from their elbow. I had to explain MSM (mice that have sex with mice; no, wait...) and had a special rant about LGBT. For the unitiated that's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. It just trips off the ... http://www.wisdomofwhores.com/2010/01/30/bullshit-bingo-lgbt/ How ethical are HIV prevention trials? Every time we announce results of a trial that compares new HIV infections in a group with or without some new intervention (a microbicide for example, or a vaccine), some journalist or other jumps on the fact that researchers are just watching people get ... http://www.wisdomofwhores.com/2010/01/24/is-cdcs-hiv-prevention-trial-in-thailand-ethical/ Great news from Vancouver: the city's safe injecting facility, Insite, is allowed to continue saving lives. For now. It's the second time that Insite has won a case brought by the right-wing rottweilers of prime minister Stephen Harper. This victory was in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. But Harper ... http://www.wisdomofwhores.com/2010/01/19/oh-canada-insite-stays-but-for-how-long/