Microbicides new hope for HIV prevention.

• Author: karim, Salim S. Abdool
• Position: Report

THE NEED FOR HIV PREVENTION THAT WOMEN CAN USE AND CONTROL

HIV/AIDS is particularly severe in Africa, where women bear a disproportionate burden of the epidemic. One of the most crucial challenges in HIV prevention in Africa is to reduce the high infection rates among young women. Worldwide, just over half of all people living with HIV are women, and 70-90 per cent of all HIV infections among women are through heterosexual intercourse. (1) In sub-Saharan Africa, women aged fifteen- to twenty-four years with HIV represent 76 per cent of the total cases in that age group, outnumbering their male peers by as much as eight to one. (1) Although the majority of new HIV cases in the United States are through male-to-male sexual contact, heterosexual contact accounts for 84 per cent of new infections among women.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Women have few options to reduce their risk of acquiring HIV infection. They are often unable to convince their male partners, especially husbands and regular partners, to be monogamous and/or to use condoms. New technologies to enable women to protect themselves from sexual transmission of HIV are urgently needed. One of those is topical microbicides--products designed to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. (2-4) They can potentially be applied vaginally or rectally and, importantly, they are unique as being a female-controlled option.

THE CAPRISA 004 TRIAL

After several years of disappointing microbicide trials that were unable to show protection against HIV infection, (5-10) or were even potentially harmful, (11-13) the results of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) 004 tenofovir gel trial, released in July 2010, finally provided the evidence that the antiretroviral drug, tenofovir gel, used before and after sex can prevent HIV infection in women. (14) This landmark study has been heralded as one of the most significant scientific breakthroughs in the fight against HIV/ AIDS with global health leaders calling the results "a game changer," "a true breakthrough for AIDS prevention," and "a significant milestone for women in the thirty year history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic"

The CAPRISA 004 trial was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial including 889 rural and urban South African women, aged eighteen to forty years, who were sexually active and HIV-negative. A total of 445 randomly assigned women received vaginal applicators containing a 1 per cent...