Microbicide breakthrough may dramatically improve HIV prevention
It’s been 20 years since Zena Stein published an article arguing that women were desperately in need of prevention methods that they could control. In her article she highlighted that “the empowerment of women is crucial for the prevention of HIV transmission to women.” (1) Since the publication of this article many of the methods put forth have been tested with limited or disappointing results. It’s terribly frustrating that in 2010 women are still at greatest risk globally for HIV infection and advocates are still working to find a method that can fill the gap when condoms and other prevention tools are unavailable or not able to be used.
Fortunately, we have good news! We can finally say we’ve made progress toward giving women (as well as men) a new way to protect themselves from HIV. What is making advocates and researchers so excited is the release of the CAPRISA 004 microbicide trial results that show that Tenofovir Gel, an antiretroviral microbicide, was effective in reducing the transmission of HIV during vaginal sex by 39%, which is a huge milestone in prevention research. (2)
This exciting news comes from the International AIDS Conference being held in Vienna, Austria, and marks the greatest success we’ve seen in the microbicides field in 20 years. (Read on …)
