One World, One Health Podcast: “Multipurpose Prevention Technologies – Innovating to Meet Women’s Needs”
Host Maggie Fox, One Health Trust, August 2022
This episode of the One World, One Health Podcast featured special guest IMPT Director and Co-Founder, Dr. Bethany Young Holt, for a conversation about products that combine contraceptives with sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention -or Multipurpose Prevention Technologies (MPTs) – for women. Dr. Young Holt explores pressing questions such as: Do women get STIs as often as men? Why do women need MPTs? Aren’t condoms enough? What do these technologies look like?
Advancing Self-Care with Multipurpose Prevention Technologies (MPTs)
Hannah Rubens & Madison Langrin, CTI Exchange Blog, November 23, 2021
CAMI Health joins the conversation surrounding self-care by highlighting the unique contributions and benefits offered by a subset of multipurpose prevention technologies (MPTs) that could eventually become self-managed options. As the Secretariat of the IMPT, CAMI Health works to expand global research and education around MPTs. We are dedicated to encouraging and assisting the development of a wide variety of MPTs to expand options available to end-users, including those that place individuals at the center of their decision-making.
Impact Networks: Create Connection, Spark Collaboration, and Catalyze Systemic Change
David Ehrlichman, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, October 2021
Author David Erlichman’s new book offers a must-read guide on collaboration and systems thinking to create global change. Our work at the IMPT is highlighted as an impact network case study: “By connecting individuals and organizations from across the system for the first time, the IMPT enabled network members to connect with and learn from one another in ways that were not previously possible.” Given the increasing complexity of our society and the issues we face, our ability to form, grow, and work through networks has never been more essential.
Strange Bedfellows: Adventures in the Science, History, and Surprising Secrets of STDs
Ina Park, Flatiron Books, February 2021
Author Dr. Ina Park (Associate Professor at University of California San Francisco, an infectious disease physician and sex educator) examines STIs by blending science and storytelling with historical tales, real life sexual escapades, and interviews with leading sexual and reproductive health scientists. In the book, she features the IMPT and MPT development as a movement “to put products for women’s sexual health in women’s hands.” The book received a glowing review in The New York Times.
Learn Before You Leap: The Catalytic Power of a Learning Network
David Ehrlichman & David Sawyer, Stanford Social Innovation Review, July 27, 2018
Learning networks are a form of collaboration that enables groups of stakeholders to cultivate connections across communities and organizations, and to strengthen a whole system simply by focusing on the potential for participants to share information and learn from one another. And while new collaborative action is not the primary goal of a learning network, action is often a byproduct of the deeper connections and shared learning that result. In this way, building a robust learning network can itself serve as an effective strategy for creating change.
Women Around the World Lack Access to Comprehensive Contraception—This is the Solution
Bethany Young Holt, Ms. Magazine Blog, June 8, 2018
Women need more options for comprehensive prevention against STIs, including HIV, as well as unintended pregnancy. My daughter, her peers and women around the world still do not have the full range of options they deserve to protect themselves from the serious health risks caused by STIs and unintended pregnancies. That’s why MPTs have the potential to dramatically impact public health—and why I have been fighting for nearly three decades, alongside dozens of other researchers, to bring such products to market.
MPTs 101: Why Youth Providers Need To Know This Term
IMPT Secretariat, YTH Blog, November 13, 2017
If you are an advocate for youth health and well-being, you need to know about multipurpose prevention technologies (MPTs) – innovative tools on the horizon to address a gap in the sexual and reproductive health of women and girls.
Meet the intrepid doctors and scientists who are viewed as the ‘Zena warrior princesses of women’s health
Pam Norick, Women in the World, November 30, 2017
The MPT field has grown from theoretical beginnings to now having nearly a dozen products in early clinical stages. This World AIDS Day, read about our MPT champions and the progress of the field in Women in the World.
Putting Women’s Voices at the Heart of MPT Development
Vanetta Thomas & Laura Dellplain, CTI Exchange, August 21, 2017
What if women could prevent pregnancy and protect themselves against sexually transmitted infections (STIs) like HIV using a single product? Can a suite of such products be created to meet the varied needs, preferences, and life circumstances of women around the world?
Putting Prevention in the Hands of Women: Combining Contraception with HIV & STI Prevention
Bethany Young Holt, Our Bodies Ourselves, March 8, 2017
This International Women’s Day, it is clear that the global community needs to act boldly to maintain progress we have made in improving the health and well-being of women worldwide.
Ask the Expert: Women & HIV Prevention
Beverley Newman & Vanetta Thomas, Human Rights Campaign, March 8, 2017
Today marks International Women’s Day (IWD), a day to celebrate “the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women” and to renew the international community’s commitment to a more gender inclusive world.
Ending HIV requires new prevention methods for women
Bethany Young Holt, STAT News, December 1, 2016
For millennia, childbirth was the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age. While still an important cause of death, the leading killer worldwide is now HIV/AIDS, with the highest burden in sub-Saharan Africa.
Make full SRHR for young women a priority
Heather Boonstra, Sex Rights Africa Network, July 16, 2016
As thousands of young people from around the world join advocates, scientists, policymakers, journalists and health care providers at the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban this week, the fact that HIV disproportionately affects adolescent and young women is sure to be frequently cited.
H.I.V. and African Women
Bethany Young Holt, The New York Times, March 4 2016
You are correct that the development of an effective H.I.V. prevention ring that can combine with contraception cannot proceed soon enough. Although a very welcome development, the dapivirine ring is not the only device with potential for birth control-H.I.V. prevention.
Vaginal Ring Protects Women From HIV — When They Use It
Maggie Fox, NBC News, February 22 2016
An insertable ring that slowly releases an HIV-fighting drug can cut in half the risk a woman will get infected — if the woman uses it, researchers reported Monday.
Multipurpose prevention technologies hold great promise, but more US investment is needed
Heather D. Boonstra & Bethany Young Holt, The Hill, December 1 2015
On World AIDS Day—held across the globe on December 1—we look back on how far we have come in the fight against AIDS and examine the work still left to do. One thing is clear: Sexually active women around the world, and especially in countries with high rates of HIV…
MPTs Combine Contraception With HIV And Other STI Prevention
Bethany Young Holt & Helen Rees, Health Affairs, November 2 2015
The world became a better place recently when world leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a milestone United Nations statement that will shape world policy for the next 15 years to reduce poverty and set us on a more equitable and sustainable…
Could This Technology Make Condoms Obsolete?
Jessica Roy, New York Magazine, July 13 2015
The shortest route to abstinence is Googling “STD rates in America”: Punch that bad boy into your phone and you’ll have a whole new appreciation for Ciara and Russell Wilson’s arrangement. More than half of all people will have an STD at some point in their lifetime, and there are 19.7 million new STDs contracted in the U.S. every year…
The Need for Broad-Spectrum STI and Pregnancy Prevention Methods is Clearer Than Ever Bethany Young Holt, RH Reality Check, December 1 2014
Imagine the impact on women’s lives if people who wanted to prevent a pregnancy and steer clear of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) could use one product that simultaneously did both. Imagine if women who were the most at risk of HIV but worried about the stigma associated with HIV or negotiating prevention with their partners could have access to a variety of products to choose from…
Can you imagine a world without condoms for safe sex? Scientists can
Bethany Young Holt, The Guardian, December 1 2014
Currently, women who want to both avoid an unplanned pregnancy and prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have no choices other than the male or female condom. But there are new forms of female-focused methods in development that combine contraception with the prevention of STIs – including HIV – and they’re called Multipurpose Prevention Technologies (MPTs)…
Beyond the Condom: A Combo Approach to Sexual Health
Melissa Pandika, OZY.com, September 23 2014
The male condom is king when it comes to effective sexual protection. Used correctly, it prevents sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and pregnancy alike. But there’s a big problem, especially for women in the developing world: Men often refuse to wear them…”
Multipurpose prevention technologies for HIV and STIs in spotlight at AIDS 2014
Citizen News Service, July 25 2014
“Women of reproductive age have a need for prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV, and family planning methods. More importantly, women need prevention tools/methods that are under their control and do not leave them at the mercy of their partner, in as far as their sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is concerned…”
When Condoms Are Not Enough
Impatient Optimist, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Blog, December 16 2013
“Anashe and Carol are two young women living half a world apart, but with a lot in common: their risks for HIV, unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections are high and their options for protection are limited…
New Infographic Makes the Case for Multipurpose Prevention Technologies
PHI Blog, December 11 1013
“Following the announcement of President Obama’s significant commitment of $100 million for HIV/AIDS treatment research, researchers and funders have called for investment in new multipurpose prevention technologies (MPTs)…
Urgent Need for Multipurpose HIV Prevention, Family Planning Methods Aimed at Women
Kaiser Daily Global Policy Report, December 11 2013
“High HIV infection rates among women around the world point to an urgent demand for new prevention methods that specifically address women’s health needs,” Bethany Young Holt, the executive director of the Coalition Advancing Multipurpose Innovations, a project of the Public Health Institute, and Manjula Lusti-Narasimhan, a scientist with the WHO, write in a San Francisco Chronicle opinion piece.
New HIV/AIDS prevention methods for women needed
Dr. Bethany Young Holt and Dr. Manjula Lusti-Narasimhan, San Francisco Chronicle, December 9 2013
“Hand in hand with the best treatment should be better prevention”- this Op Ed by CAMI Health Director and WHO Reproductive Health and Research Director class for increased funding for comprehensive prevention…
Multipurpose Prevention Technologies in Spotlight at Women Deliver
Citizen News Service, June 2013
“There is a growing mandate globally to push for more investment in research and development of new, safe and effective MPTs. This makes more sense in terms of public health and getting most value of every dollar spent…