Microbicides: new anti-Aids gel?
Shaun Benton
29 April 2006
Hundreds of scientists specialising in reproductive health and vaccines gathered in Cape Town this week for a major international conference on a potentially revolutionary technology in the battle against HIV/Aids.
Known as Microbicide 2006, the conference drew together scientists from around the world for a four-day study of a bio-technology being developed that has the potential to kill the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, during sexual intercourse.
Scientists are hoping to have the microbicide, which is applied as a gel or cream that releases an anti-HIV ingredient, on the market in the next few years but are facing a struggle for adequate funding, as multinational pharmaceutical companies show little interest in a product that they see as having limited interest in developed country markets.
'Empowerment'
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, delivering the keynote address at the conference on
Monday, said the invention of an effective microbicide would "ensure that the health of women in relation to sexually transmitted infections will no longer depend on their ability to negotiate safer sex."
This will have an impact on "the balance of power in their relationships with men," she said.
"While condoms remain an effective intervention in the prevention of sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies, their effective use remains very much dependent on the cooperation of men," Tshabalala-Msimang said.
"Therefore, microbicides represent empowerment for many women who need to protect themselves from the risks associated with unprotected sex."
Clinical trials
In the meantime, a number of clinical trials are proceeding that are testing the drug, and Tshabalala-Msimang said that South Africa had recently established a national clinical trial register that would inform the Health Department about ongoing
trials.
The register would also seek to provide trial participants with information about the drug-testing trials.
Outlining some of the reasons behind this decision, Tshabalala-Msimang said that while participants in clinical trials generally had to provide "informed consent," this was problematic because many people in poorer communities would not understand the term and would need to have it explained in their mother-tongue.
"How many researchers can speak local languages?" she asked during a press conference held after her keynote address.
On the question of limited international funding available for research into an effective microbicide, Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena said microbicides "fall in the category of diseases of the poor, like malaria and tuberculosis" and as a result there was not sufficient research in this area.
Nonetheless, when developed, an effective microbicide would become another weapon in South Africa's arsenal
of weapons against HIV along with anti-retrovirals and condoms, Mangena said.
Source: BuaNews
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