Anti-HIV gel could save millions
CLINICAL TRIALS in Africa of two gels designed to combat HIV are being planned by British scientists. Millions of people around the world could soon protect themselves against the virus with microbicides, if they prove successful during the large-scale trials.
The UK's International Development Secretary Hillary Benn recently said that women could be the main beneficiaries, as they would be able to protect themselves without relying on men to use a condom.
Laboratory trials of the drugs have proved successful and researchers told a conference in London that clinical tests involving 12,000 women will now take place over three years in South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda and Cameroon.
If the results are positive, the products could be on the market before the end of the decade. One expert has estimated that they could save up to two-and-a-half million lives in just three years.
The microbicides were developed through a government-backed study by the British Medical Research Council and London's Imperial College and could provide a barrier to the transmission of HIV during sex. Benn said: ``Women are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection.
They are20 per cent more likely than men to be infected in sub-Saharan Africa.'' The face of HIV is in fact the face of a young woman. What microbicides would do is put the power to protect themselves in the hands of women.'
The gels or creams are applied internally — before sex — in order to stop the virus from entering the body. The microbicides work in one of three ways. They can kill the virus before it enters the body, prevent it from taking hold once inside the body, or create a barrier to stop it from entering the body in the first place.
The only major clinical trial of a microbicide so far, of an ingredient used in spermicides known as nonoxynol-9, was unsuccessful. Researchers relied on the fact that it acted like a detergent, which meant that it successfully damaged HIV. However, the chemical also disrupted the layers of fat in the skin cells it was being applied to, and the trials were halted because of concern that this could increase the risk of HIV transmission.
Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
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