[Viva] FW: Vaginal gel breakthrough unleashed a wave of optimism at the world AIDS conference

[Tami S.]

Subject: Vaginal gel breakthrough unleashed a wave of optimism at the world
AIDS conference


http://www.canada.com/health/condition/hiv-0xd7946/breakthrough+lifts+mood+A
IDS+conference/3296642/story.html 

 

VIENNA - A breakthrough test of a vaginal gel to protect women against HIV
unleashed a wave of optimism at the world AIDS conference on Tuesday after
two days of rows over funding.

Hearty applause broke out in the main hall of the Vienna congress centre
where delegates were told of the research unveiled in the U.S. journal
Science the night before.

Organizers hastily set aside a huge room for a seminar to debate an
announcement that some veterans described as nothing less than historic.

The prototype is the first vaginal gel to offer a strong degree of
protection against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), according to
results from the second phase of a three-stage trial.

"We are all very excited by the results," Anthony Fauci, director of the
U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told a
press conference.

"This is the first time that there has been an unequivocally significant
demonstration of the ability to block (HIV) acquisition in women by a
microbicide."

Further scrutiny is needed of the microbicide's safety and effectiveness
before it can be released to the public, experts cautioned.

Questions remain about whether the protection is high enough or whether the
formula should be fine-tuned, and how the product would be used in real life
rather than in test conditions.

But if these obstacles are overcome, a weapon of mighty proportions could
emerge in the fight against AIDS, they said.

It would not only add to the tiny arsenal of options for preventing the
spread of HIV. It would also empower women, especially those in sub-Saharan
Africa, facing coercive sex from an infected partner who refuses to wear a
condom.

"This is good news for women, good news for the field, and a good day for
science," Yasmin Halima, director of the Global Campaign for Microbicides,
said.

The U.S. ambassador for AIDS, Eric Goosby, said the trial had been a "proof
of concept" that the long and frustrating quest for a microbicide was
viable.

"We are giving hope to women. For the first time we have seen results for a
woman-initiated and -controlled HIV prevention option," said Michel Sidibe,
executive director of the UN agency UNAIDS.

The gel was tested under tight ethical guidelines among 889 women in urban
and rural South Africa, who were HIV-free at the start of the project.

Half of the women received the cream - the first microbicide to contain an
antiretroviral drug commonly used to treat HIV-infected people - while the
others used a placebo, a harmless but non-active lookalike.

Thirty-eight women in the gel group became infected with HIV, compared with
60 in the placebo group.

In statistical terms, the gel reduced the risk of HIV infection by 39 per
cent overall, but by 54 per cent among women who adhered to the instructions
most consistently.

There was no increase in side effects, nor - among women who became infected
with HIV - any sign that they were more resistant to tenofovir as a result
of the gel.

The implications for gay men, a group at risk for HIV, are as yet unknown.

The microbicide was not tested in anal intercourse, where statistical
studies suggest the infection risk can be 10 times higher than for vaginal
sex, Ward Cates, president of research at Family Health International (FHI),
a major U.S. NGOs, told AFP.

Jean-Francois Delfraissy, executive director of France's National Agency for
AIDS Research (ANRS), said the work was "one of the greatest (medical)
trials in the history of HIV".

Even with this success, there remained no "magic bullet" on prevention, but
a panoply of methods, including safe sex and male circumcision, he told AFP.

More than than 33 million people are infected by HIV, more than two-thirds
of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. In this region, 60 per cent of new
infections occur among women and girls.

The 18th International AIDS Conference, a six-day event that runs until
Friday, was soured in opening debates over a slump in funding, triggered by
the economic recession.

Activists rowdily accused President Barack Obama of reneging on AIDS
pledges, prompting his predecessor, Bill Clinton, to mount a defence of the
White House incumbent and urge campaigners to squeeze every dollar at a time
of belt-tightening.

 
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Elgin Lim
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BC Persons With AIDS Society
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