Gel Is Next Hope for Preventing HIV in Women
Gel Is Next Hope for Preventing HIV in Women
Gels, Cream May Help Protect Highest Risk Group From AIDS Virus
July 16, 2004 (Bangkok, Thailand) With development of a vaccine to prevent HIV infection still years away, AIDS specialists say that vaginal gels which kill HIV "represent a major breakthrough in the fight against AIDS."
Speaking at the XV International AIDS Conference, Zeda Rosenberg, MD, chief executive officer of the International Partnership for Microbicides, says that an effective gel to protect women could be available within five to 10 years. Such a gel, known as a microbicide, could prevent 2.5 million HIV infections over just three years, Rosenberg says.
"Even a 60% efficacious microbicide introduced into 73 low-income countries and used by only 20% of women would avert 2.5 million HIV infections during three years in women, men, and infants," she says.
While a vaccine against HIV is agreed to be the best way to prevent infection, experts are worried that none of the 30 or so candidates now being studied will actually be effective. A few have already failed to work in human studies. And all the remaining candidates are all based on the same strategy -- protecting against HIV infection by boosting one part of the immune system to fight off the tricky virus, says Wayne Koff, PhD, senior vice president and chief of vaccine research at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.
"Even though we have widened the pipeline, almost all the candidates are working on a single approach," Koff says. "They are so similar that if one fails, they all may fail."
The call for other prevention efforts, such as effective microbicides, comes at a time when almost half of the world's 38 million people living with HIV worldwide are women. And infection rates among women are growing much faster than those among men in many countries.
"Young women, especially those that are married, are being infected at astonishingly high rates, Rosenberg says. "Twenty-five percent of women in South Africa are infected by HIV by the time they are 22 years old."
In South Africa, adolescent girls who are five times more likely to become infected than teenage boys. Meanwhile, married women in sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly being infected by the virus because their husbands are unfaithful and will not use condoms, she says.
Gel Is Next Hope for Preventing HIV in Women
Gels, Cream May Help Protect Highest Risk Group From AIDS Virus
July 16, 2004 (Bangkok, Thailand) With development of a vaccine to prevent HIV infection still years away, AIDS specialists say that vaginal gels which kill HIV "represent a major breakthrough in the fight against AIDS."
Speaking at the XV International AIDS Conference, Zeda Rosenberg, MD, chief executive officer of the International Partnership for Microbicides, says that an effective gel to protect women could be available within five to 10 years. Such a gel, known as a microbicide, could prevent 2.5 million HIV infections over just three years, Rosenberg says.
"Even a 60% efficacious microbicide introduced into 73 low-income countries and used by only 20% of women would avert 2.5 million HIV infections during three years in women, men, and infants," she says.
While a vaccine against HIV is agreed to be the best way to prevent infection, experts are worried that none of the 30 or so candidates now being studied will actually be effective. A few have already failed to work in human studies. And all the remaining candidates are all based on the same strategy -- protecting against HIV infection by boosting one part of the immune system to fight off the tricky virus, says Wayne Koff, PhD, senior vice president and chief of vaccine research at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.
"Even though we have widened the pipeline, almost all the candidates are working on a single approach," Koff says. "They are so similar that if one fails, they all may fail."
The call for other prevention efforts, such as effective microbicides, comes at a time when almost half of the world's 38 million people living with HIV worldwide are women. And infection rates among women are growing much faster than those among men in many countries.
"Young women, especially those that are married, are being infected at astonishingly high rates, Rosenberg says. "Twenty-five percent of women in South Africa are infected by HIV by the time they are 22 years old."
In South Africa, adolescent girls who are five times more likely to become infected than teenage boys. Meanwhile, married women in sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly being infected by the virus because their husbands are unfaithful and will not use condoms, she says.
Source...